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Newly released 2009 payment rates for ambulatory surgery will be painful for certain specialties, says Kathy Bryant, president of the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association. For example, gastrointestinal cases have a 7% decrease, which is added to a 5% decrease last year, Bryant says.
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Declination statements are being used in widespread efforts to have large numbers of outpatient surgery staff members and others vaccinated for the flu.
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The Endoscopy Center of Colorado Springs (CO) has won a national award for its improved system of reporting and explaining pathology results to patients. One year after implementing the new reporting system, 100% of patients surveyed received their pathology reports, were informed of the results, and knew their recommended follow-up dates.
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Another advance in general laparoscopic surgery that was launched at the recent annual meeting of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons and received an innovation award was the Free Hand robotic camera holder from Prosurgics of Cupertino, CA.
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The Institute of Healthcare Improvement's (IHI) free How-to Guide: Improving Hand Hygiene, includes monitoring checklists. To monitor hand hygiene compliance, IHI suggests the following measures.
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As concern grows over antibiotic-resistant organisms, health care workers never have been under greater scrutiny for their compliance with hand hygiene.
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One thing the robot has not yet performed, but articulated handheld laparoscopic instruments have, is single port access (SPA) surgery in which three or four trocars are placed within a single opening in the abdomen, usually the umbilicus.
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Just when one thought that minimally invasive surgery couldn't get any less intrusive, new technologies are discovered that are one step less invasive than the most recent advance.
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I have received so many phone calls and e-mails about the September column on the separation of inpatient and outpatient ORs that I thought a follow-up to some of your questions was necessary. Overall, the response was very favorable and positive.
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According to How-to Guide: Improving Hand Hygiene, the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) says you should measure the percentage of patient encounters in which there is compliance by health care workers with all components of appropriate hand hygiene and glove practices.