When it became clear there was a severe shortage of COVID-19 testing kits in our area, we decided to build our own with a team of volunteers at our newly opened...

Staff can feel disconnected from the decisionmakers who determine how facilities are run. Giving them an opportunity to have their voices heard and speak openly with...

After gynecological procedures such as hysterectomies, surgeons place vaginal packing to stop excessive bleeding. But how are physicians and even patients to know that...

Anxious patients waiting in pre-op bays don't want to see their surgeons wandering around looking for who they're going to be operating on next. To eliminate that...

For cataract patients who have an aversion to IV needles or who have chronic opioid issues, an MKO melt is a wonderful alternative. The sublingual sedation, which consists...

I’m known for crafting surgical caps made of bright colorful fabric and giving them to my colleagues as small gestures of how much I appreciate working with them....

Anesthesia providers are placing intubation boxes between themselves and the patients they're intubating to serve as a barrier against COVID-19-containing aerosolized...

If your ears begin to feel the pinch from wearing masks all day as you return work during the coronavirus outbreak, reach for a Barrel of Monkeys. It's one of the many...

The battle for control of the thermostat is a common occurrence in ORs and a source of undo stress for the surgical team. We decided to give final say of the room's...

Even if your facility isn’t on the frontlines of the battle to combat COVID-19, you can still find ways to join in and help. For our temporarily shuttered surgery center, that meant...

Effectively screening patients for COVID-19 is part of pre-op protocols as outpatient facilities across the country slowly begin performing elective procedures again....

Reprocessing technicians have one of the most important jobs in an endoscopy center. The complicated and detailed task of cleaning and reprocessing multiple scopes...

A one-word sign on a fleet of fluid waste management carts lets your OR team know which devices have been emptied and cleaned and which ones haven’t. After we...

When the coronavirus outbreak caused a shortage of personal protective equipment at our hospital, we jumped at the chance to help and developed the prototype for a DIY...

It’s been nearly two months since the coronavirus began to invade every facet of our day-to-day lives. Heck, it virtually shut down our very livelihood when elective...

If a survey uncovers an issue that will take a lot of effort (time and money) to solve, always ask the surveyor if there’s an easier way to make the fix and still be...

Healthcare professionals don't do well sitting still. If your staff is faced with too much free time during the COVID-19 crisis, look for non-clinical tasks that need to be done...

I In our endoscopy department, we make a MESSSS first thing in the morning. The acronym, which we discovered through SGNA, makes it easy to remember the agenda...

Members of our surgical team were particularly grossed out about wearing thyroid shields others had worn during procedures involving intraoperative imaging....

High-volume surgery centers need to take advantage of any operational enhancements they can to stay ahead of the game. That's why we've become proactive about IV starts...