I'm a big proponent of rigid sterilization containers for numerous reasons. They're reusable and therefore eco-friendly, they protect your instruments from damage much better than blue wrap does and many models...

To keep your entire staff abreast of the ever-changing guidelines and directives related to COVID-19, make sure the latest information is easily accessible to everyone. When the coronavirus started spreading quickly,...

To help our surgeons find their patients quickly and easily in recovery, we hung a series of color-coded flags on the wall outside each bay. The series of flags are screwed into the wall, allowing us to flip one out as needed....

Many surgical professionals learn best by doing. If you bombard them with information about what to do in the event of a malignant hyperthermia (MH) emergency, but don't...

Buying commonly used medications in premixed, pre-labeled and prefilled syringes should be a no-brainer, right? You'd think so, but ready-to-use syringes are more...

At long last, the end of 2020 is in sight. Good riddance. I haven't been this excited for the start of a new year since Y2K. Back in October, I honestly considered covering my...

Monthly one-on-one talks with each of my staff members gives them the chance to speak about any issues they have and talk openly about whatever subject they choose to discuss. The meetings are brief check-ins...

Hand hygiene has always been important, but COVID-19 has caused us all to refocus on doing it right. To make sure our staff is keeping up with this important task, we perform a fun exercise with Glo Germ, a lotion that glows...

There's a lot riding on turning over operating rooms quickly between cases. It ensures high-volume surgeons start their surgeries on time, patients pass through pre-op...

Your surgeons can spend hours poring over data about what they need to do to ensure a superior surgical outcome, but when they actually go into the OR to operate,...

The concept of enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) has been around for more than 20 years, introduced in colorectal and abdominal cases as fast-tracked "accelerated...

You do countless things over the course of a case to ensure a successful outcome, but often don't think to include them in the patient's chart because, well, they seem like...

Product News; Great ideas for your OR

The Oregon Clinic Gastroenterology East at Gateway in Portland ?shut down in March for nearly two months when the pandemic's initial wave hit the west coast hard....

The buck stops with sterile processing techs, who are ultimately the ones responsible for returning complete instrument sets to ORs on time and properly sterilized....

Leadership at our facility believes in hiring the best people possible — then letting them do their jobs. To make this happen, we don't employ traditional pecking orders or a typical hierarchical structure. Medical reps talk...

The PowerPoint deck displayed on one of the flat screen monitors in our lobby runs on a loop and includes answers to commonly asked patient questions and bios of staff and surgeons. The bios include traditional...

We invite patients and staff to recognize members of the team who demonstrate one of our medical center's core values — respect, teamwork, service, honesty — by submitting a card describing the good deed...

Ah, Thanksgiving. Time for turkey, dressing and pumpkin pie. It's over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go — whether physically or virtually....

Love the efficiency of your facility's single-cup coffeemaker but hate the waste generated by all those leftover cups? Purchase a coffee pod recycling tool that allows you to easily separate the grounds from the recyclable pod...