Performance Improvement 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…
Jacksonville TV station WTLV-TV reported last week on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) at the city’s HCA Florida Memorial Hospital. “The goal isn’t to replace doctors, but support them,” said the anchor introducing the piece. Interviewed in the report was the hospital’s Eric Troup, DO, who said the facility…
If you’re focused on making your ORs more efficient – and who among perioperative leaders isn’t? – we encourage you to attend next Monday’ s free webinar, “Driving Efficiency in Surgery with Advance Case Management.” Led by orthopedic surgeon Robert B.(RB) Jones, MD, of Mercy Springfield and Nate Edgington, DBH,…
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) has released what it calls the first national framework that outlines measurable workplace standards for surgeons. The framework, “Developing Specialty-Specific Workplace Standards for Surgeons,” was published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons (JACS). ACS states that the demands placed on surgeons, including…
The first case of the day is a complex orthopedic procedure. Loaner trays were expected the afternoon before but arrived late in the evening. Sterile processing adjusted priorities to accommodate the load. The industry representative is already in the department at 6:00 a.m., confirming instrumentation and reviewing implant availability with…
