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...

You might be surprised by how many ophthalmologists suffer from occupational injuries that in some cases shorten their careers....

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....

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....

Up until a few years ago, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center didn’t have a standard surgical smoke evacuation program in place. While having such a program may seem like a no-brainer for one of the nation’s leading cancer centers...

Juan A. Sanchez, MD, FACS, describes the OR as a “target-rich environment for sharps injuries.” Dr. Sanchez is the chair of the committee on Perioperative Care at the American College of Surgeons, and he says a perfect storm of factors in...

At Seven Hills ASC & Cath Lab in Henderson, Nev., nurses held a roundtable discussion to determine specific items that would be helpful in the case of an evacuation or emergency event....

Each year, OAM Surgery Center at MidTowne in Grand Rapids, Mich., holds an education day for staff to ensure they are compliant with CMS and AAAHC requirements. If you’re expecting boring stories of clinicians sitting in classrooms watching dry...

Hard work has always been part of the price to pay for working in surgery, but perhaps never to the level that it is now. “We were already experiencing a high burnout rate...

Test your staff’s knowledge on instrument cleaning, sharps safety, wound care and other ways to keep patients and staff safe.

Avoiding dangerous and preventable sharps injuries often comes down to debunking the common myths about these issues. Setting the record straight allows facilities to put proven processes and protocols in place....

Keeping fluid off the floors of ORs is obviously a critical safety issue. Staff injuries from slips, trips and falls are among the top culprits causing lost workdays that often result...

Not long after we opened the doors to our small outpatient center in 2004, we experienced our first sharps injury. That was just the wake-up call we needed to ensure the event was a one-off mistake and not an unfortunate...

Surgery is currently dominated by two forms of turnover: The turnover of breaking down and setting up for the next case and that of OR personnel jumping ship or retiring. This combination of fast-paced scheduling and increasingly...

When Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law last year a measure that required hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers to eliminate surgical smoke, it was a big win for the nurses...

This special issue of Outpatient Surgery Magazine is dedicated to safety from both the patient and the staff perspectives. It’s a topic that is near and dear to me for many reasons. As a nurse with more 30 years’ experience working at...

Monkeypox continues to pose a threat since an outbreak of cases began in the U.S. earlier this year. As of Sept. 29, the CDC reported 26,631 confirmed cases...

A little more than six years ago, Beki Kazanofski, MSN, RN, CNOR, NE-BC, was in the OR when a needle caught the very tip of her glove. “Thank god I was double-gloved, and I had that extra layer of protection,...

Facilities with the foresight to invest in the blending of surgeon skill and technological advancements are shaping the future of surgery. MultiCare Health System in Tacoma, Wash., added...

Surgical teams take great care in cleaning surfaces, prepping the patient’s skin and making sure barrier protection is in place to reduce the risks of surgical site infections (SSIs). That might not be enough to address what's wafting in the air...