When several staff members came to me to praise one of their coworkers, I felt their show of support should be displayed for not only the worker to see it,...

Are you sure your staff is diverting recyclable materials from white bag waste? For 2 weeks I gathered and weighed recycling bags filled during procedures,...

Our surgery center doesn’t have a cafeteria, so family members who were waiting for their loved ones in surgery used to leave if they wanted a quick bite to eat. When surgeons...

The Joint Commission and the National Fire Protection Association guidelines say flammable preps must be allowed enough time to dry after application, pooled solution...

Mental health is often overlooked or not talked about because people are ashamed of sharing how they feel, or afraid of what others might think if they ask for help....

Many educators will tell you that students retain information better when learning is enjoyable and interactive. We put that idea into practice this year at our...

My recent study showed that music can be just as effective as midazolam in calming patients' nerves before they receive peripheral nerve blocks. Based on those...

We're sticklers about ensuring staff wash or sanitize their hands before and after each patient contact. We use a secret code word, "Mango," to inform forgetful or...

You can keep your office door open or your ear to the ground and still not be tuned in to what your staff really thinks. Our "You Said, We Did" form solves that issue....

If you want your staff to relay safety concerns to you, you need to make it easy for them to report what they see. No one's going to fill out long, detailed forms....

On those rare occasions when a patient contracts a surgical site infection, we want to preserve as much evidence in the case as possible so we'll be better able to find...

We've shaved some precious minutes off our turnover times by creating a "runner" position to help the RN, surgical tech and the 1 to 2 instrument techs we staff for each...

Before critical procedures like our high-volume thyroidectomies, we gather a multidisciplinary team to play a game of "What Could Go Wrong?" in which we discuss...

At our ASC, 15% to 20% of our patients speak Spanish as their primary language. For many years, we've partnered with East Tennessee State University's (ETSU) Language...

How will you protect your staff if there's an active shooter in your facility? We've trained our staff using the FBI-endorsed Run, Hide, Fight protocol. If staff can't safely evacuate...

The patient is prepped and draped, and I'm seated to begin my charting. Only then do I realize that I've forgotten to record the serial number of the SCD box. I'd have to hop...

We hang an image of the American flag on the OR door to alert the surgical team that the patient is a combat veteran who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder...

It’s one thing to log and track laboratory specimens and post their results in the patient’s chart. But that doesn’t confirm that the ordering healthcare provider read...

Children at Roxana Cannon Arsht Surgicenter in Wilmington, Del., were so stressed saying goodbye to their parents before heading to the operating room for dental...

Certain procedures cause anxiety for patients. That’s especially true at my facility, where we’re treating children. When we received a $13,000 grant for 3 virtual reality...