Editor’s Page: Making the Math Work

A few weeks ago I flew out to Denver with one primary objective: to see Rocky Mountain National Park — come hell or high water.

With AORN’s headquarters located in the Mile High City, I’ve made the trek out West several times over the past five years.

In spite of my proximity to Rocky’s natural wonder, the closest I’d come was leafing through a flyer at a Kum & Go, an absurdly named gas station/convenience store (don’t go to Reddit looking for the name’s origin).

I never could make the math work on previous trips. From the moment I woke up until the moment my head hit my hotel pillow, every minute of my day seemed spoken for — with none of those 1,440 60-second intervals of time left over for me.

You know a little bit about the me-time quandary, don’t you? Surgical leaders often juggle multiple roles amid the frenzied pace of a schedule filled with an endless parade of cases, pit-crew fast turnovers, staffing shortages and host of unforeseen obstacles, often without any real quality time for themselves. Yes, automation and AI promise to make life easier on both the administrative and clinical side of things, and in this issue you can read about some of the technologies (navigation systems, 3D printing and custom implants) that aim to make surgery more efficient. But let’s be honest, these can only do so much right now. Successful ASCs and HOPDs are powered by crafty, industrious, creative facility leaders who are natural problem-solvers. These are the people with whom Christopher Miller, MD — an orthopedic hand and foot surgeon who is featured in not one but two stories in this issue — loves to share OR space.

To make it to Rocky Mountain National Park this time around, I channelled my inner administrator and went into problem-solving mode. Here’s just one example of how I tackled the multiple issues that would’ve caused me to say “forget it” on past trips:

Problem: The park just instituted a timed entry system where a small amount of tickets were released at 5 p.m. MST the night before you visit, tickets that apparently get snatched up within minutes. I was unavailable at that time.

Solution: Beg my sister to sit by her laptop, use my Recreation.gov log-in and reserve my entry, which is apparently as hard as getting Taylor Swift tickets.

In order to see an iconic national park, I woke up at 4 a.m. to catch a 7 a.m. flight from Philly to Denver, rented a car from the cheapest place on Priceline ($28/day, Fox Rental), dropped off Senior Editor Adam Taylor at the hotel, drove two and half hours — during most of which I really, really had to pee — and made it to the park entrance with mere minutes to spare before I missed the arrival window needed to gain admittance.

But it was so worth it.

I hiked every nook and cranny of the Nymph Lake Trail, saw five lakes and even swam in the turquoise waters of one. I let the world slow down and didn’t leave until the encroaching darkness forced me to make the long drive back to my hotel. I’m not suggesting you go to this extreme, but whenever you can carve out the time — even if it’s just a few minutes — a little time for yourself can work wonders. OSM