One thing accreditation surveyors look for when they visit your facility is if your OR is housing any lingering expired medications and supplies....

Like many ASCs, OAM Surgery Center at MidTowne in Grand Rapids, Mich., is concerned about unnecessary traffic going in and out of its ORs....

In the past five years, a flood of literature on surgical smoke hazards has confirmed what nurses and surgeons have been complaining about and, in extreme cases...

The American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine (ASRA Pain Medicine) recently released the first U.S. guidelines on cannabis use in relation to surgery....

A healthy patient population is a cornerstone of outpatient surgery. Those fortunate enough to be greenlighted for same-day procedures get to...

Rewarding staff for preventing errors and keeping patients safe are the means to an end every surgical leader strives to achieve...

If you want your staff to recall their training long after the in-service is done, you’ve got to make it fun, engaging and challenging....

Just because an instrument has been reprocessed doesn’t mean that it’s clean. In some cases, that’s because reprocessing techs are rushing and forced...

The number of unintended retained surgical items (URSIs) reported to The Joint Commission (TJC) continued to decline in 2022, with 88 events disclosed...

There’s nothing easy about cleaning flexible endoscopes. They’re fragile and expensive and one can argue the margin for reprocessing them safely is...

According to the Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States (MHAUS), malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a potentially fatal inherited...

With ASCs increasingly taking on more complex surgical cases, there is a growing movement for surgery centers to take on patients who have traditionally been relegated to hospital-only care...

Virtually every article, webinar or how-to guide on flexible endoscope reprocessing includes some version of this advice: Be sure to follow the manufacturer’s Instructions For Use (IFU)....

To further reduce the risk of medical errors, the management team at WellSpan Health Apple Hill Surgical Center, a multispecialty ASC in York, Pa., identified a need to improve communication, teamwork and...

Big changes to rules on sterile compounding, labeling meds and safer use of medication administration technology are a few key practice updates that will be published electronically this month in AORN’s Guideline for Medication Safety on eGuidelines+....

Successful wound care is about staying true to the basics. Not every surgical wound will need an antimicrobial dressing or wound vac. But paying special attention to closing every surgical site properly...

It’s a common occurrence in facilities everywhere: A newer nurse or a traveler will come into an OR and notice some slight variations in how the perioperative team is positioning the patient for the case....

The best way to mitigate risk is to catch it before it happens. That’s the whole idea behind standardizing a surgical checklist — providing constant confirmation to safely ensure the patient’s care....

Jesse Hixson, MSN, RN, CNOR, administrator for the Monroeville (Pa.) Surgery Center, expected orthopedic and cataract surgeons to be extremely discerning and opinionated about the surgical gloves they used....

The old adage, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail,” feels like it was written specifically for the surgical experience. Whether patients are choosing an elective surgery or in need of emergent surgery...