Can your staff communicate with patients who speak a foreign language? In order to comply with accreditation standards and offer true quality care to our patients, it is imperative that we address communication barriers. Until recently, it was a difficult hurdle, but we think we've found the solution: an Arizona-based translation system gives us access to 181 languages, including Spanish, which about 10 percent of our patients speak.

The system, which consists of a portable phone and two headsets, costs $230 for two phones, two towers (including chargers) and two pairs of headsets. We installed one system in each of our eight ORs, in the pre- and post-op areas and in our stereotactic room.

Using the system costs $2.28 per minute for the services of the translator via telephone. Here's how it works:

• Both the surgeon or nurse and patient get a headset;
• in the OR, the circulator dials and in pre- or post-op and the stereotactic rooms, the nurse using the system dials; and
• a translator talks to both patient and physician/nurse at the same time.

The system is especially handy for maintaining communication during procedures being done under local or light MAC. We even recently had the opportunity to use the service to give and ensure understanding of discharge instructions.

Thanks to the translation service, we have achieved a higher standard of care and made ourselves more available to the community. To round out our foreign-language accessibility, all pamphlets, pre- and post-op instructions and consent forms are printed in English and Spanish. We also hired two bilingual (Spanish- and English-speaking) nurses.

Pam Ertel, RN, BSN, CNOR, RNFA
Administrative Director
Reading Hospital Surgicenter at Spring Ridge
Wyomissing, Pa.
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Sweatshirts instead of scrubs for the front office Our front-office staff used to wear scrub clothes to work, which was fine until I noticed that patients would often ask our receptionist, scheduler and biller medical questions they weren't equipped to answer. To delineate them from our surgical staff, we decided to create a business-causal uniform for our business staff. The look is simple and sporty, consisting of a sweatshirt and V-neck cotton cardigan with our logo embroidered on it. We provide each member of our business staff with three sweatshirts and two matching cardigans to wear over pants or slacks of their choosing. In addition to our office team's looking professional yet casual, our clinical staff no longer asks office staff to fetch items for them from the OR - and our clinical staff are afforded more scrubs from which to choose.

Flavel Rogers, RN, MSHA
Nurse Administrator
Glasgow Surgery Center
Newark, Del.
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Post educational materials in the staff lounge Here's a time-saver you can start doing now: Each month, in the staff lounge, I post a topic of the month comprised of fact sheets and posters from a variety of sources, including accrediting bodies, safety organizations and manufacturers. The topic can be anything: patient safety, sharps safety, infection control. At the end of the month, I save the fact sheets and posters as packets that are helpful as orientation reference materials for new hires, especially those who are recent graduates.

Michelle Whittaker, RN, BSN
Perioperative Educator
East Texas Medical Center
Tyler, Texas
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Screening for latex allergy We screen all incoming employees for latex allergy. We question them about any previous signs of sensitivity and other allergies (especially food allergies), and we perform a rash test for latex. We divide symptomatic employees into two categories: skin symptoms and respiratory symptoms. We give not-latex gloves to those with skin symptoms and further evaluate those with respiratory symptoms to determine if they need to be in latex-restricted areas.

Marybeth Bollinger, MD
Director of Allergy
University of Maryland
College Park, Md.

Reducing red bag waste When opening a case, place a clear bag inside the biohazard red bag to collect wraps, papers, supply packages and other regular non-biohazardous trash. Then remove the clear-bagged trash from the biohazardous red bag before the start of the case and dispose of it in your regular container at the end of the procedure. After we instituted this system, we decreased our red bag garbage costs by 40 percent.

Pamela Ledger, RN, MSN
AVP Perioperative Services
St. Francis Medical Center
Trenton, N.J.
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