There's no reason for any of your hardworking nurses to suffer a strain injury from transferring a patient from pre-op to the OR table or from the OR to PACU — especially with...

With the danger of criminal prosecution hanging over their heads, how many frontline nurses — many of whom are already burnt out from the harrowing experiences...

What is the biggest difference between inpatient and outpatient infection prevention? Generally, there isn’t a playbook for the outpatient setting. If you become an infection preventionist for the inpatient world, there’s online...

Warming patients before, during and after surgeries delivers two primary benefits. The most obvious is the comfort. Warmth can do wonders to soothe a shivering, nervous...

No sterile processing department (SPD) manager wants to add another step to the complex and strategically redundant process of sterilizing surgical instruments....

Every time Lauren Bryan, RN, notices an OR team member following her facility’s robust hand hygiene protocols, she makes it a point to verbally acknowledge the compliance she just witnessed. It’s positive recognition, sure....

No matter how hard one tries, the skin simply cannot be made sterile. It can, however, be made surgically clean. Optimizing the skin’s cleanliness prior to surgery is the target that...

There are between 75 and 100 intricate steps involved in the proper reprocessing of flexible endoscopes. That means there are countless opportunities for staff to miss critical steps...

Most surgical professionals are relatively knowledgeable about the best surface cleaning practices, and tried-and-true manual methods remain the best way to...

Studies have shown that up to 30% of the population may be colonized with Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) in their nares and up to 5% of U.S. hospitalized patients...

For the past two-plus years, the world has constantly turned to infection preventionists and epidemiologists looking for answers on how to combat an insidious and...

Zero is always the goal. Our surgery center works tirelessly on multiple fronts to ensure no patient walks away from an elective procedure with a surgical site infection (SSI). Of course, hitting that elusive benchmark is always...

Outpatient Surgery Magazine: What are your thoughts about the supply chain, especially on the ASC side of things — how it's been through the pandemic,...

Everyone is talking about the RaDonda Vaught criminal conviction, so you know I’d have to chip in my two cents. Like so many of my fellow nurses, I haven’t been able to stop...

Five or 10 years ago, a basic anesthesia machine was perfectly suitable in many outpatient ORs. Times have changed, however, as the differences between hospitals...

My son is 29 years old and living with autism. It’s been challenging as a parent to raise him in a world that doesn’t always understand or accommodate his unique needs....

PDI Healthcare’s Super Sani-Cloth Germicidal Disposable Wipes are now available in a softpack, which contains 80% less plastic than the company’s traditional large canister dispensers....

Concerns from surgeons and nurses about the quality of our instruments forced us to determine the root cause of the issue. First, we had to find out if it was related to...

When pediatric surgeries began ramping up at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Maine, the anesthesia and nursing teams wanted to be sure young patients felt comfortable in their care. “One CRNA mentioned that...

Palo Alto Medical Foundation Surgery Center Fremont (Calif.) has devised an effective solution for addressing situations when surgeons are a bit too eager to get to the next case. At the center, patients are asked to arrive earlier...