October 2021

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Surgeons clearly don’t intend to cause stray energy burns when they cut and coagulate tissue with energy-based surgical...

What does safe surgical care mean to you? Eliminating avoidable adverse events by developing and maintaining competent teams...

Focusing on the clinical aspects of multiple complex procedures during a busy day of surgery is stressful for surgical teams, so it’s understandable that the basic steps...

Proper medication safety requires surgical leaders to ask some very tough questions. Are employees stealing drugs for consumption or resale? Did a staffer not dilute a drug...

Proper medication safety requires surgical leaders to ask some very tough questions. Are employees stealing drugs for consumption or resale? Did a staffer not dilute a drug...

A nurse suffers a serious back injury while trying to lift a patient without help. A patient falls during the transition from the OR to the PACU. Unfortunately, these issues happen...

Using barcode scanning or radio-frequency identification to confirm the accuracy of manual counts will result in fewer sponges left inside patients, yet surgical professionals...

Why don’t all healthcare facilities employ some sort of surgical smoke evacuation system? Not only does surgical smoke smell and obstruct the surgeon’s view of the...

Kathy Beydler, RN, MBA, CNOR, CASC, has seen her fair share of slips and trips in the OR — some resulting in significant injuries and missed work time — during her time as a...

All too often, misconceptions regarding the inherent safety risks associated with intraoperative fluoroscopy obscure a fundamental truth about C-arms: With the right...

Effective sharps safety is a multifaceted endeavor. It requires a holistic approach that incorporates mindfulness, effective communication, safety-engineered devices,...

Every time we send out a staff engagement survey, we include the following question: Does your manager have a safety-first mindset? The question may seem out of place on an engagement survey,...