Surgery/Specialties More than $150 billion is spent annually on medical devices in the United States, with orthopedic and cardiac procedures accounting for almost all of Medicare’s device-related expenditures. Most of the recent increases in such expenditures have been related to the wider use of orthopedic devices, which is expected to grow…
Innovations in surgical techniques, anesthesia, and equipment, along with the drive to decrease healthcare costs, are increasing the number of patients and procedures deemed suitable for outpatient surgery. Among the elective procedures now being performed at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) are total joint replacements. The buzz at recent conferences has…
Supporters of the bariatric surgery facility certification established in 2006 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) are anxiously awaiting the agency’s final ruling on whether to reverse that decision. CMS issued a proposed decision memo in June and is expected to make its final ruling by the…
OR Business Performance is a series intended to help OR managers and directors improve the success of their business. Does your hospital’s CEO expect you to grow surgical volume in the upcoming fiscal year? Hospitals have always depended on surgical services to drive revenue and profit. Today, in the…
More than 120 centers throughout the US have bloodless surgery programs to serve patients who refuse blood transfusions for religious and other reasons. The practice, which began more than 50 years ago, has evolved through research on blood conservation and new techniques to minimize the need for transfusions. The Joint…
One would think that reducing surgical complications would lower a hospital’s costs in addition to being the right thing to do. But the hospital’s bottom line can be seriously affected. The loss can be substantial unless new surgical volume is added to make up for the loss, a new analysis…
Does your OR have a Hodad, a Raptor, or a Shrek? These are handles for dangerous surgeons that Martin Makary, MD, MPH, describes in his scathing new book, Unaccountable. Dr Makary, a surgeon and patient safety leader at Johns Hopkins, advocates a “transparency revolution” to make data public and motivate…
A new study in the journal Health Affairs of total knee replacement (TKR) confirms that wide variations in care exist among hospitals based on factors such as geographic location. The High Value Healthcare Collaborative found significant variations in TKR among the 5 participating health care systems. Among these were length…
A new hip or knee implant comes on the market. Surgeons would like to start using it. But the cost is higher than current implants the hospital is using. Will it offer better outcomes for patients? The answer has been hard to come by. If there is outcomes data, it…
Cataract surgery, almost exclusively outpatient, can have a serious complication if instruments retain a chemical residue after cleaning. It is known as TASS, for toxic anterior segment syndrome. Ophthalmologists say it is rare, but there are no consistent data to indicate when, where, and how often TASS occurs. The Food…
