The next time you need a lesson in radiation safety, pop your head into a procedure room to watch an interventional pain doc at work....

Scott Augustine, MD, begins an hourlong pitch about the dangers of the Bair Hugger forced-air patient warming system he invented — and is now campaigning against...

From speed bumps and sticky pads to arm tucks and tilt tests, you pull out all the stops to protect patients when you place them in the Trendelenburg position....

Instead of discarding unused fentanyl in real time, your anesthesia provider aggregates all discards and brings them out for witnessing by another licensed professional...

It's no secret that a stapler failure can quickly turn a routine procedure into an emergency. What's surprising is the alarming number of times staplers have misfired...

If you don't ask your patients if they smoke weed, you might want to start. As more states legalize both medicinal (33 states and D.C.) and recreational (10 states and D.C.)...

Your surgeons might have the greatest training, the most accurate technique and work with cutting-edge equipment, but they can’t fix what they can’t see. Lighted...

When it comes to retained surgical items (RSI), you shouldn't assume anything, you should prove it. And if you don't see it, you should find it. Working in surgery,...

I was a kid when I first learned about Will. He was the brother I never met. Will had been taken from my parents before I was born, when he was just 2 years old. One day,...

We place many of our neuro patients in the prone position. Until recently, we were also re-positioning them in the prone position. Quite a bit. Not good. The more you move...

We know that pre-operative warming can help prevent hypothermia, which will lead to improved surgical outcomes, fewer surgical site infections, and much happier patients...

Let's make it a safe day, LBJ! That's what the charge nurse here at Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital in Houston announces to the entire perioperative team at the end of every morning...

In turning away patients who are above a certain BMI, is your cutoff a sliding scale that edges outward as the obesity epidemic worsens? You're hardly alone if what started...

True safety in the OR isn't about what you report to CMS and the various rating agencies that will grade you for quality. Self-reported safety surveys offer a lot of wiggle room...

Infection Prevention: Borescopes: Your Eyes on the Inside; Shed some light on the dark side of your devices.

Your Attention, Please: Time for a Time-Out; Before you can take a safety pause, you have to get the surgical team's attention.

Safety: Need Help Establishing a Culture of Safety? This survey self-assessment tool will identify areas of needed improvement.

Yes, You Can Perform Opioid-Sparing Surgery; How to go easy on the prescription painkillers - yet still control your patients' pain.

How Much Do You Know About Patient Warming? A recent survey suggests some nurses are still stumped on the basics of preventing perioperative hypothermia.

Celebrating 10 Years Of the Surgical Safety Checklist; Q&A with Thomas Weiser, MD, checklist co-creator and champion of safer patient care.