October 2022

Accreditation is more than a simple stamp of approval. Sure, accredited facilities meet nationally recognized quality measures, implement evidence-based clinical practices...

Ten years ago, Jaines Andrades, DNP, AGACNP-CC, was working as a janitor at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. Today, she's caring for patients alongside the...

Let me tell you why Black patients should have access to more Black doctors. Last June, I underwent surgery to remove osteomata (benign tumors) from my forehead and a...

The use of continuous nerve blocks to manage post-op pain provides many benefits. Patients require fewer opioids, which lowers their risk of opioid misuse and eliminates...

Postoperative nausea and vomiting is the last thing patients want to deal with when they're recovering from surgery. Waking up in the PACU feeling sick can ruin any good...

Administering medications in the eye during cataract surgery helps surgeons perform the procedure safely and promotes post-op healing. Old standbys offer cost-effective...

Portable handheld ultrasound probes that attach to smartphones are one of many tools that make practicing regional anesthesia an easier task, but the probe and the smartphone often gets dirty while in use....

In order to connect with patients and give them an experience that is second to none, we follow a process called FORD (family, occupation, recreation and dreams). It all begins with a staff member's first meeting or phone call...

Great ideas for your OR

Components of some power tool sets used in the OR suites at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore were going missing — and it was costing the facility nearly...

Anesthesia providers have been forced to alter the way they work in order to deliver safe and efficient care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of their close proximity...

We’ve developed a sign system to alert staff and physicians about a patient’s risk factors such as allergies, falls, insulin dependence and skin tears. The signs are printed with large, upper-case lettering, laminated and clipped...

Practicing daily gratitude is proven to have significant health and psychological benefits, including improving quality of sleep, lowering depression levels, blood pressure and...

Total joints are a hot specialty and orthopedic vendors want a piece of the action. Leveraging your facility’s current case volumes and the expected explosive growth of...

One of the many secondary results of the coronavirus pandemic has been a reemphasis on the importance of cleaning and disinfection at all levels of health care. For the medical device reprocessing industry in particular,...

About seven years ago, we decided to transform some of our staff and patient spaces into "Zen dens" — areas that inspire calm and mindfulness. One of our nurses, Darlene Faust, RN, happened to have hidden...

Placing products at eye level in grocery stores and retail chains is a strategy used to increase sales. Tabitha Turner, RN, MSN, CNOR, CGRN, the driving force behind...

We invite patients and staff to recognize members of the team who demonstrate one of our medical center's core values — respect, teamwork, service, honesty — by submitting a card describing the good deed...

Love the efficiency of your facility's single-cup coffeemaker but hate the waste generated by all those leftover cups? Purchase a coffee pod recycling tool that allows you to easily separate the grounds from the recyclable pod...

Ah, Thanksgiving. Time for turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie. It's over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go — whether physically or virtually....

The PowerPoint deck displayed on one of the flat screen monitors in our lobby runs on a loop and includes answers to commonly asked patient questions and bios of staff and surgeons. The bios include traditional...

Warm blankets and warming devices are easy-to-apply interventions that prevent a patient's temperature from dipping below 36 ?C before, during and after surgery....

Bundled payment models work wonders for facilities that perform predictable, repeatable surgeries such as total joint replacements. In an industry where payment...

It's the year of the nurse, and what a year it's been. The amazing people whose profiles begin on page 22 are celebrated as deserving representatives of a profession filled with dedicated providers who give more than they receive,...

Some of the drugs and fluids used most often in surgical facilities go in and out of shortage daily due to interruptions in the supply chain, a problem exacerbated by the...