Uncategorized OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 Medicare is proposing a major overhaul to its conditions of participation (CoP) that would give hospitals wider latitude in the use of practitioners such as advanced practice RNs (APRNs) and physician assistants (PA). The rule would also expand use of standing orders…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 Santa dragged his lawn chair out to a sunny patch to sort through his bag of holiday gifts. With global warming, he is able to relax in shorts and a tank top instead of his traditional bulky red suit. He checked his…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 Slower walking in elderly patients may signal a higher risk of postop complications and longer stays, finds a study presented at the American College of Surgeons meeting in October 2011. Surgical patients 65 and older were given a preop walking test: standing…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 Take the right people and add the right software and the right processes. The result: an end-to-end surgical supply and inventory management system built on trust that yields useful data for decision making. In 2010, its first year, the team at the…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 An occasional column on Joint Commission issues. The reprocessing and storage of laryngoscope blades has been a hot button for Joint Commission surveyors, and OR managers have been asking how they can comply with the expectations. In answer, the Joint Commission on…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 On November 1, 2011, in posting the final 2012 outpatient payment rule, Medicare gave the ambulatory surgery center (ASC) industry a reprieve in its quality reporting deadline and an unexpected pay hike. While industry experts are pleased with what they see as…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 Making inroads on on-time first-case starts and turnover time means process changes, of course. But changes won’t take root without a change in behavior. Cincinnati-based Tri-Health attributes the progress it has made to improved accountability by all levels of personnel, from front-line…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 12; December 2011 In a sudden and welcome move, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service (CMS) has not merely relaxed its rule on informing patients of their rights in advance of surgery; it has overturned it. On October 7, 2011, Health and Human Services…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 November 7-13, 2011, is Perioperative Nurse Week. The AORN Foundation is pleased to provide the opportunity to honor colleagues by making a donation to the Foundation in their name. An acknowledgment note will be sent to each colleague honored through a donation.…
OR Manager; Vol. 27 No. 11; November 2011 There is no standard method for charging for OR time. In this article, 5 OR business managers describe their OR charging structures, which primarily are based on the OR minute and assign a level of service based on resource utilization. The departments…
