Eye Shield Prevents Wrong-Eye Surgery
Here's an added measure you can take to be sure you don't block or dilate the wrong eye during cataract surgery. After placing a sticker and the surgeon's initials above and below the operative eye, place the clear eye shield that comes in your procedure packs on the non-operative eye. Tell patients that this is an extra level of safety. Your surgeons will appreciate knowing that the non-operative eye is protected under the drape. When the case is done, simply shift the shield to the operative eye. This physical barrier is that extra step that guards against human error.

Faris Zureikat, MBA, CASC
North Texas Surgery Center
Dallas, Texas
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Easy Way to Keep Track of Patients' Friends and Family
We've found a simple way to ease the congestion around our registration desk and safeguard our patients as well. When patients register, we fit a colored paper bracelet around the wrists of all the family and friends authorized to accompany them to pre-op and to see them in post-op. This way, when family and friends leave the facility, all they have to do upon their return is flash their wristbands and we know that they're OK to go back. We change the color of the inexpensive bands monthly.

Terry Ross, RN
Pavilion Surgery Center
Duluth, Minn.
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Never Hear "You Never Told Me That" Again
We hang our communication log right by our time clock, a single sheet of paper that includes reminders, updates to surgeons' preferences, policy changes and facility news. Employees must initial that they've read the log before each shift. Now they have no more excuses to say "I wasn't told" or "I didn't know." The benefits of this simple system include not waiting until a staff meeting to implement ideas and not running around to make sure that everyone knows what's new. It's also a great way to keep your part-time and per-diem employees up to date. We file filled-up logs in a nearby folder as a handy reference.

Jason Fischer, RN, BSN
The Surgery Center of Centralia (Ill.)
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Bring Electric Outlets Wherever You Go
As surgical technology advances, so does the demand for electric outlets. It seems like every new device needs an outlet. So we purchased Mobile Outlet Spheres ($250 for 12 amp; $300 for 20 amp) and mounted them on IV poles. That way we can mount a consciousness monitor, fluid warmer or a pump and plug them into the outlets in the sphere rather than running 2 or 3 cords to the outlet in the wall. The outlet spheres help reduce OR clutter and speed things up when we're setting up or turning over an OR.

Jim Laughner, CRNA, DO
Director, Surgical Services/Anesthesia
Punxsutawney Area Hospital
Punxsutawney, Pa.
[email protected]

Color Changes The Surgical Experience
When I planned our ophthalmic practice's surgery center, I decided early on that if it's not going to be a hospital, it should look as little like a hospital as possible. For example, patients enter a waiting room accented by stained glass windows, which create a calming but uplifting atmosphere and provide a picture that changes with the light of the day. A decorative Oriental fan and an oil painting add a bit of elegance to what could be a drab, anxious space.

Perhaps the biggest difference, though, is that we've painted the walls of our pre-op and recovery areas red. It's the last type of color you expect to see in a surgical facility, and that's exactly the point. The impression of white is that it's clean and clinical, but white is also boring. You don't need to remind patients that they're having surgery: They already know why they're there. You want, if possible, to take their minds off the present.

The paint we chose is called "Positive Red," and that's the effect we'd like for it to have. Red is life. It's a very vibrant, bold, lively color. What could be better than to host patients who have an upbeat attitude when they arrive in pre-op and when we discharge them from PACU?

Red is also a beautiful background to all the standard beige equipment and furnishings around the room. You can keep a room with red walls just as clean as one with white walls. And the paint isn't any more expensive to use. (We've done up the OR walls in "Perky Peach," and let me tell you, the greens and blues of scrubs and drapes look great against it.)

Coupled with windows that let in natural light and vinyl flooring designed to look like hardwood, the end result is a soothing, calming setting that makes the patient feel more like a guest in someone's home than part of a clinical process.

That kind of warm, comfortable feeling is critical to the patient's experience, during and after their stay with you. If, however, a cold, clinical environment makes people feel tense as soon as they walk in, they're not going to have a good experience, no matter how well their surgery goes.

When you consider how consumer-driven ASCs are, you can't understate the importance of courting patient satisfaction. It's our reason for being. For us, patient response to our changes in the look of the perioperative process has been very positive. They're just in awe.

Sandra Yeh, MD
President, CEO and Founding Partner
Prairie Surgery Center
Springfield, Ill.
[email protected]

Use Your Staff as Hand Hygiene (Role) Models
We saw the popular "Got Milk?" ads in numerous magazines and decided that a "Got Soap?" hospital campaign featuring our own staff as models would be a fun and effective way to hammer home the importance of following hand hygiene protocols. Our hospital's staff photographer took the pictures so they'd look professional (that's shaving cream, not milk or soap, on their upper lips). Our internal graphic design department printed the posters. We hung them outside the cafeteria and in the operating rooms. We even made them into screen savers. They feature real staff members holding hand hygiene products in use at our hospital, as well as helpful tips for applying each product properly.

It's effective to use actual employees as educational role models because staff will enjoy seeing themselves and their co-workers on the posters. More importantly, using actual workers is a great way to market and encourage positive behavior. When staff see that administrators, managers, physicians and infection control leaders (that's me on the left in the top poster!) take part in a creative hand hygiene campaign, everyone involved with patient care is more inclined to comply with the program's teaching points. Overall, the posters were a huge success and well received by staff, visitors and patients.

Maureen Spencer, RN, MEd, CIC
Infection Control Manager
New England Baptist Hospital
[email protected]