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Anesthesia providers, especially those who practice in freestanding facilities and offices, are buzzing about a cluster of three hepatitis C infections found in patients who received intravenous anesthesia from the same anesthesiologist based in New York City in August 2006. The anesthesiologist worked at about 10 outpatient practices.
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Knowing your outpatient surgery program well enough to answer surveyors' questions and provide necessary documentation is a responsibility that all managers accept and understand, but when the surveyor focuses on Life Safety Code issues, some managers scramble for information.
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This column is inspired by the May 9, 2007, article in the Association of American Medical College (AAMC) publication that says one-third of doctors over age 50 would retire if they could.
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It's estimated that 5.5 million workers are potentially exposed to hazardous drugs or drug waste at their worksites, ranging from manufacturing and shipment of the drug to receiving it at a hospital, storing it, delivering it to patients, and disposing of it.
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Keeping the right people on your staff is important to any outpatient surgery program's success, and making sure that paychecks, benefits, retirement plans, and 401Ks are handled properly is essential to employee satisfaction.
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Even though I'm a perioperative nurse, my anticipation and anxiety grew last May as I walked into the DISC (Diagnostic & Interventional Spinal Care) in Marina del Rey, CA, for a posterior stabilization with instrumentation procedure of my lower back (L4-5).
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In a study recently published in The Archives of Surgery, researchers developed an outpatient surgery admission index from independent predictors of immediate hospital admission using the following point values:
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"We know about 1 in 200 patients get admitted to hospital following outpatient surgery, but that rate can easily vary. Outpatient surgery centers are going to continue pushing the envelope, and it is imperative that patients and physicians take control back.
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Versatility, flexibility, and the ability to juggle many different responsibilities at once are included the basic job description of any outpatient surgery program manager.
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When Robert Bray, MD, was asked by a colleague opening a surgery center to move some of his spine procedures to his outpatient center eight years ago, Bray was willing to try a few simple procedures such as microdiscectomies.