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Question: Our surgery center executive committee replaced our retiring administrator last month with a kid right out of (seemingly high) school who has no experience whatsoever in health care or clinical experience. I always thought the administrator must be a registered nurse.
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In addition to clinical steps necessary to ensure a safe experience for patients electing to undergo outpatient bariatric surgery, it is essential that same-day surgery managers look at staff education, environment, and program marketing to minimize the risk of dissatisfied patients.
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With more than 95,000 laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB) procedures performed since its introduction in 1993,1 this approach to bariatric surgery began moving into the outpatient arena a few years ago.
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A surgery centers procedures go from being reimbursed at 125% of Medicare to 55% of Medicare.
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At least 4,000 patients at two North Carolina hospitals underwent surgical procedures that used hydraulic fluid in the sterilization process. The hospitals, part of the Duke University Health System, determined that workers for an elevator company emptied the fluid into several empty detergent drums while performing maintenance in mid-September 2004. The workers capped the soap containers without changing the labels.
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To avoid seeing your reimbursement drastically reduced by payers, do the following:
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The ramifications for not labeling medications on the sterile field can be severe for patients and for providers, due to liability and now, a new National Patient Safety Goal from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
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Meeting the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Health Care Organizations standard for competency assessment of staff was a problem for 14% of ambulatory care organizations and 15% of office-based surgery organizations surveyed in 2004, according to Joint Commission statistics.
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The two new items added to the 2006 National Patient Safety Goals were ones that received the highest marks in the first-ever field review of proposed patient safety goals for outpatient surgery programs.
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Two resources that address the security rule of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are available on the Internet.