Accreditation Photos Miss the Mark
Re: "What to Expect on Your Next Survey" (February, page 66). The nurse in one picture is wearing a surgical cap with most of her hair uncovered. A cap worn in surgery should confine hair to prevent contamination of the sterile field or wound. In another picture, an RN is pictured in scrubs outside of the OR suite with a mask untied and dangling from her neck. Both of these pictures are inconsistent with AORN-recommended standards of practice pertinent to surgical attire. As perioperative nurses continue to develop policy and teach nursing practice that is evidence-based, it's important that you depict surgical staff following recommended standards of practice appropriate to all surgical settings.

Jennifer L. Misajet, RN, BBA, CNOR
Director of Surgical Services
United Medical Center
Cheyenne, Wyo.
[email protected]

If accrediting organizations are going to gold-stamp facilities for delivering quality patient care and complying with surgical standards, you should take care to publish photos that support and reinforce what they stand for. The photo of the operating room nurse wearing a surgical cap that doesn't contain her hair is a violation of surgical asepsis. This makes accreditation appear sloppy rather than the very important process it is.

Shirley Torwirt, MHS
Administrator
Longmont Surgery Center
Longmont, Colo.
[email protected]

Preventing OR Fires
Re: "Lessons Learned from Three OR Fires" (December, page 46). Thank you for the informative article about fires in the OR. I made copies and distributed them to the directors of nursing and all the anesthesiologists in the two surgery centers where I work. I asked the ultimate question: Can this happen here? The right answer was: "Only if we don't keep our eyes open to the opportunity." As your article points out, there is always a reason as to why a fire starts in the OR. Frankly, since we use cautery in every operation (I do only head and neck cosmetic surgery), the risk is always there. Reduction of fire risk is one reason almost all my cases are done with intubation.

Robert Kotler, MD, FACS
Cosmetic Surgery Specialists Medical Group
Beverly Hills, Calif.
[email protected]

Latex-free Supplies
Latex glove manufacturers and their paid lobbyists continue to claim that reducing latex protein levels is enough of a defense against latex allergies, just as cigarette manufacturers claim that low-tar cigarettes are a safer alternative to smoking regular brands. A cigarette is a cigarette and a latex glove is a latex glove. Let's give latex-free surgical glove manufacturers credit for making substantial product improvements, not regurgitate outmoded ideas that wearers are somehow putting themselves at risk by wearing a latex-free alternative - that just isn't the case.

Keith C. Boulter
President
ECI Medical Technologies, Inc.
Nova Scotia, Canada
[email protected]

Out to Bid
An enormous conflict of interest occurs when designer-builders create construction documents, then become involved in the "bidding." It's the physician's desire and the architect's responsibility to get the absolute best price available for the work shown in the construction documents. That can only happen in a true design-bid-build delivery process, where advisors and vendors are clearly delineated. There are numerous ways to build; the only way to find the best, and lowest, price is to bid.

Paul W. Stegenga, AIA
Stegenga PARTNERS
Alpharetta, Ga.
[email protected]

For the Record
American Optisurgical Incorporated's Sistem phacoemulsification unit lists for $9,800. We incorrectly reported the price in "What's New In Phaco Machines" (February, page 26).

The code for Akin bunion correction is 28298, not 28292 as we reported In November's Coding & Billing column.

In the SevenD ad in our January Manager's Guide to New Surgical Construction, there was a typographical error in the web address. The correct address for the company is www.7d.biz.