Performance Improvement A new study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons examines the efficacy of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Geriatric Surgery Verification (GSV) Program’s older-adult enhanced recovery protocol. The GSV program is designed specifically for patients 65 and older. Its seven components are: Delirium prevention Routine…
Despite your and your staff’s best intentions, do your facility’s hallways become clogged with equipment and other materials? Are your storage areas overflowing and spilling out into these important corridors? Is it a recurring situation where action is taken to clear the hallways and then, over the course of the…
The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) has published a clinical guideline that presents a comprehensive approach to perioperative risk assessment and management in patients with cirrhosis – a population that it says presents “unique surgical risks.” The guideline emphasizes a multidisciplinary approach to preoperative evaluation, perioperative care, and postoperative follow-up.…
Last week we reported that the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association’s (ASCA’s) Clinical & Operational Benchmarking Survey has been redesigned and relaunched as the new ASCA Benchmarking survey, which is ready for Q1 data submissions right now. Now you can hear more about the “total remaking” of the survey straight from…
The Children’s Hospital Association has shared a compelling story about Golisano Children’s Hospital at UK in Lexington, Ky., which integrated a child life specialist into its perioperative team. While the expectation was that the integration of the specialist would help improve the patient experience, it also changed clinical practice by…
The Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) has unveiled a completely redesigned benchmarking survey that the organization states will provide its members a “more modern and personalized experience” that is more user-friendly. Formerly known as ASCA’s Clinical & Operational Benchmarking Survey, the new ASCA Benchmarking survey is ready for Q1 data…
Few operational domains in health care expose leadership capability quite like surgical services. It is where clinical complexity, resource intensity, and financial volatility converge, all in real time. In many organizations, perioperative performance still hinges on daily heroics: capacity huddles, staffing scrambles, reactive scheduling, and near‑constant problem‑solving. The system “works”…
As margins tighten and labor pressures intensify, perioperative leaders are re-evaluating the levers that shape everyday efficiency and performance. One such lever — used in every OR, by every team, for every case — is the preference card. Surgeon preference cards have long held a conflicted identity: they’re indispensable, yet…
A new narrative review study posted Monday on Cureus, “Patients With Obesity on the Acute Care Surgery Service: Improving Outcomes,” posits that obesity now “represents a defining characteristic of the emergency general surgery (EGS) population," and that many clinicians and health systems need to account for this reality in their care…
Everyone knows the time-honored cliché about surgeons who act out as the ego-driven superstars of the OR, and to whom everyone else on the perioperative team defers or even fears. In one periop leader’s experience, that dynamic has changed. “The physician of today is not the physician of 10 years…
