Outpatient Surgery Magazine is recognizing some of the best of the best in surgery with our 7th annual OR Excellence Awards. This year's 7 winners, listed below, will be honored at an awards luncheon at our OR Excellence Conference being held in San Antonio this year from Oct. 14 to Oct. 16.

• Erica Natal, BSN, MHA, MBA, director of clinical services and winner of the 2015 Financial Management category. Ms. Natal and her team at Rockford (Ill.) Gastroenterology Associates have managed to earn the ultimate trifecta, keeping their center profitable, charitable and cost-conscious.
• Steven Vitcov, MD, medical director of the Presidio Surgery Center in San Francisco, is this year's Patient Safety winner. Dr. Vitcov and his team stop at nothing to protect their patients, including fire safety drills that include a consultant setting himself on fire in the OR — seriously.
• Pat Plett, BNRN, MS-HSA, CNOR of the Honorhealth Scottsdale Thompson Peak Medical Center in Scottsdale, Ariz., considers keeping employees safe a top priority. This year's Staff Safety OR Excellence winner spares no expense when it comes to protecting her staff from harm on the job.
• With fewer than 10% of its patients receiving opioids in PACU since 2010, the world-renowned Andrews Institute ASC in Gulf Breeze, Fla., is the 2015 winner of the Pain Control OR Excellence Award. Barbara J. Holder, RN, BSN, LHRM, the ASC's QI and infection control coordinator, says the center's team of anesthesia providers keeps patients happy and comfortable with their expert multimodal approach.
• This year's Patient Satisfaction winner, Mary Radke, RN, BSN, ASC manager of the Dakota Eye Surgery Center in Bismarck, N.D., says her staff go out of their way to make every patient — and their families — feel like rock stars.
• Joan Conine, BSN, RN, CNOR, RNFA, manager of perioperative services at Mercy Tiffin in Tiffin, Ohio, says everyone from surgery techs to surgeons got on board to reduce the hospitals infection rate from 1.1% last year to it's current level of 0.3%. This achievement earned the hospital this year's OR Excellence Award for Infection Prevention.
• Going green is a part of life for Audrey Witucki, LPN, CST, and others at the Lakewood Health System Hospital in Staples, Minn. This year's winner for Environmental Stewardship says the rural community plays a big role in the hospital's aggressive "Go Green" initiative.

Kendal Gapinski