October 2022

There's no question major changes have been made in the OR as a result of COVID-19. Of course, changes come with a lot of complaints. We perioperative nurses would...

Do you ever notice how your fresh stock of facility-logoed pens always seem to disappear? If you don't want to lecture staff about "stealing" your dwindling supplies,...

I was working as a brand-new circulator when the surgeon on the case started making snide comments about one of the OR nurses — a sarcastic jab here, a dig there. Soon...

You need to check out Netflix’s Lenox Hill, a docuseries named after the Manhattan hospital where it takes place. It’s a brutally honest, gut-wrenching, joyous look at...

The risks and dangers of complex spine procedures are significant, so surgeons must work with specially designed tables that give them the access, visibility, versatility,...

Marking trash bags with an OR's room number is a simple way to shorten the search for misplaced instruments. No matter how many instrument counts take place...

On a winter’s evening in 2017, Chris Fuller, MD, was about to cut into the most vibrant green bell pepper he had ever seen. “It was splayed before me, in brilliant 4K high-def...

Patients often sit nervously in the reception area as they wait to hear their name loudly called when it's time to get prepped for surgery. To take some of the stress out of...

You might use covert monitoring methods and punitive punishments to improve your staff's compliance with hand hygiene protocols, but I believe in overt observations...

With public health experts sounding the alarm about the likelihood of a second COVID-19 spike this winter in the midst of flu season, whole room disinfection technologies are...

Patients are informed before and after surgery about the amount of post-op pain they're likely to experience. To complement those important discussions, we created...

The use of deep monitored anesthesia care (MAC) during outpatient surgeries continues to increase, and for good reason. MAC eliminates the need for general...

Here's a fun and effective way to make sure your facility's written policies are followed. First, create a series of cards that each contain a policy your staff needs to know,...

I replace about a thousand knees a year and treat each one as a unique case when restoring the joint's normal range of motion and stability. Soft tissues guide me to how...

The new tabletop T-Edge 10 Autoclave boasts a 10-inch chamber size and 32-minute cycle times — the largest capacity and the fastest times of comparably sized units,...

Keeping surgical patients warm and their core body temperature above 36 ?C is not only critical to their comfort, but also their safety. Unplanned perioperative hypothermia...

The beauty of the price transparency model lies in its simplicity. You present all-in pricing for each procedure your surgery center offers, and patients pay the advertised...

Increasing case volumes is the obvious way to infuse your facility with additional revenue. Looking at ways to improve efficiencies, limit waste and make smart...

Think of patient satisfaction like a Yelp review. With technology and social media at everyone's fingertips, patients can easily look up how your facility and surgeons stack...

When the COVID-19 pandemic began, one of the first things we noticed was the negative shift in everyone's moods. We're both very upbeat people, so we brainstormed...

If you went out of your way to get recycling bins into your ORs, the last thing you want is for all your green efforts to go to waste when recyclables accidentally wind up getting...

Creating more diversity within academic surgery requires a targeted, long-term and dedicated approach. It's a worthwhile goal. Eliminating long-standing racial and...

Ultrathin endoscopes have proven to be invaluable instruments for examining the upper GI tract of patients with challenging anatomy, even if that wasn't their intended...

Renowned neurosurgeon John Boockvar, MD, strides into an operating room at Lenox Hill Hospital and greets members of his surgical team as they gather in a loose circle....

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are expensive adverse events for surgical facilities, especially with procedures like total joint replacements and complex spine cases....