Managing operating rooms is hard, especially without access to reliable and readily available data. EHRs, built to capture information about patients and their care, do not provide the required level of data visibility or reliability needed to make daily, let alone strategic decisions about expensive healthcare assets such as operating rooms. Ensuring surgeons have optimal access, knowing exactly where and how to drive efficiency, and delivering value to surgeons, patients, and staff is a constant challenge. A challenge that requires greater visibility into available operating room time and key performance indicators. Please join us as WakeMed Health and Hospital’s Business Manager, Surgical Services explains how his three-hospital health system has: ● Transitioned from manually compiling reports (EHR reports were inadequate) ● Established effective policies to drive value and efficiency ● Created capacity in their busy operating rooms, providing greater access to open time ● Delivered transparency that has changed surgeon practices Additionally, iQueue for Operating Rooms’ Product Implementation Manager will walk through exciting and proven technology that has enabled organizations like WakeMed to leverage predictive and prescriptive analytics that break through historical barriers to OR value and efficiency.

Operating rooms grapple with time lost due to late starts, lengthy turnovers, underutilized blocks, unused blocks, and more. At the same time, many surgeons are clamoring for increased access to handle more cases. In this free webinar, Surgical Directions will present how to reclaim lost and wasted time that is holding back your OR. We will discuss how waste happens, how to measure it, and, critically, how to organize for success to convert the lost time into additional cases for your facility. With over 25 years of experience working at hundreds of hospitals and ASCs, the Surgical Directions team has the expertise to discuss ways to improve your financial performance and patient experience.

Occupational contact dermatitis (OCD), an inflammatory skin condition that occurs due to workplace exposure, can have long-term consequences, causing some healthcare workers to miss work and even change jobs. Nurses working in surgical wards and intensive care units are at the highest risk among healthcare workers. Surgical gloves are a common culprit of both irritant and allergic contact dermatitis in the healthcare setting. Glove-associated irritants include wet work, friction, air occlusion, excessive sweating, and poor hand hygiene. In addition, wearers may incur allergic contact dermatitis to chemical additives, especially accelerators that are added to speed up the manufacturing process, in both latex and synthetic gloves.

In today’s ever-changing COVID environment, you and your surgical team may have questions and concerns. Please join us for a discussion on infection prevention strategies with special focus given to urology and ureteroscope reprocessing practices. Presenter Cori Ofstead, a global infection prevention thought leader, will share her insights on COVID in urine, scope reprocessing effectiveness and risk of infection transmission in urology, and recommendations for minimizing risk to protect patients and staff alike. Key discussion points during this moderated webinar will include recent findings on ureteroscope reprocessing effectiveness and how to better manage this during COVID and beyond.

Unprecedented times present unique opportunities. We all know how the pandemic has disrupted perioperative and elective services. The pandemic is challenging us, but it has also presented us with an opportunity to evaluate many processes during the re-start of surgical service lines. As you re-deploy you will find many opportunities for improvement. You have the ability with the right approach to improve quality, staff and surgeon satisfaction, patient satisfaction, flow, and expense. How do you take advantage of this moment in time to identify the challenges that have plagued your OR for years, create logical plans, and finally implement solutions that work? During this free webinar, we will share Lean tools and methodologies that can help you attain a future state that is better than the pre-pandemic normal. You will learn straightforward Lean practices, tips, and tools that can help you improve perioperative services for the benefit of all. Discussion will also include case study examples of how Lean thinking can work to improve the effectiveness of your OR, every day, for everyone.

As hospitals resume their elective case schedule post COVID-19, there will be significant demand for capital equipment. Not only will case volume be higher in operating rooms, but also extended into more sites of care such as medical office buildings, ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and specialty clinics. At the same time, healthcare leaders know that returning their organization to financial health means doing more with less, with fewer capital dollars available for new equipment purchases. Join us for this free webinar to learn about a step-by-step approach for implementing a program to share equipment between hospitals, an entirely new way to save that maximizes equipment utilization, eliminates rental fees, and reduces capital expenses. As elective surgeries are rescheduled, explore how an equipment sharing program can help expand service lines into new sites of care—without the corresponding capital costs—and address new requests for equipment.

Amid the coronavirus outbreak, most hospitals are cancelling or postponing elective surgeries. Addressing the large backlog to restore elective surgery caseload is a top post-pandemic priority of OR leaders. This will require careful planning and execution in the coming weeks and months to identify the backlog, manage block versus open time, open more time to perform more cases, and accommodate the pent-up volume given each hospital’s available resources (rooms, staffing, locations). Join us for this free webinar as industry experts provide a set of tools and a step-by-step approach as part of model for successfully managing and restoring elective surgery caseload. Attendees will learn how to access the model for use at their institutions and be able to ask questions following the presentation.

There are many situations that can cause crisis in the OR. We are living through one of them now with COVID-19. This webinar outlines the assessment that a site would need to evaluate resources and gaps, how to handle the change in daily operations, and proactive management of patients for the elective surgical recovery period. We will also discuss the critical need for partnership with physicians and patients to keep communication lines open. Join this webinar to hear and discuss effective strategies for managing your OR, regardless of the crisis being confronted. We will share leading practices and tools that can help you keep your department running effectively and efficiently, with emphasis on recovery from the COVID-19 crisis

Despite advances to optimize infection prevention, the burden of surgical site infections (SSIs) still remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality. SSIs are the most costly hospital-associated infection in hospitalized patients, totaling 1.5 million each year. Targeting SSI prevention is a national priority. This webinar will provide an overview of the pathogenesis, classification, and management of SSIs. Associated risk factors and current statistics regarding SSIs will also be reviewed. The economic impact on patients and institutions, as well as the impact of SSIs on quality of care and hospital reimbursement, will be discussed together with components of a successful SSI reduction program.

Despite all the attention given to perioperative pressure injuries, a lack of understanding of contributing risk factors and appropriate prevention measures persists. In fact, according to the National Health Care Quality Report, 60,000 patients die annually related to complications from pressure injuries. Join us for this free webinar, where Cassendra A. Munro will discuss correct application of the Munro Scale© risk assessment instrument, a simple method designed to help perioperative nurses with identification of patient-specific and perioperative risk factors related to pressure injury.

Culture is commonly a significant barrier to change in hospital and surgical center ORs. Today’s OR leaders know that overcoming this barrier demands appropriate and thoughtful staff engagement in order to create buy-in and support for changes. Join this webinar to learn effective tips and tricks for creating a culture that is supportive of change. Find out how to leverage best-practice ideas to create a governance structure to align leaders, to build performance dashboards that effectively engage and incentivize staff, to execute routine operational tactics that keep everyone on the same page, and more!

In ORs across the country, perioperative personnel are tasked with doing more with less resources. Join us for this free webinar, where you’ll find out how to identify and adopt protocols, processes, and parameters that improve overall efficiencies in your OR every day. Simple yet strategic modifications can yield significant improvement and translate into real time savings for every case.

Join us for this free webinar you’ll learn about decision-making strategies to take the right action when right-sizing blocks, the benefits of leveraging mobile and cloud technologies to replace manual request and release processes, and how objective and timely “single source of truth” metrics help surgeons and administrative leaders improve OR performance.

Join us for this free webinar where you will learn about the unique challenges associated with managing heat stress in the OR. You’ll find out the key factors contributing to the occurrence of heat stress in the perioperative environment, its effects on OR staff performance, and methods of reducing heat stress in the OR.

Join this webinar and hear perspectives from our experienced panel about how to prepare your teams and colleagues for the supply chain of the future. Learn how to leverage tools that encompass the system’s entire value chain (from 3PL to automation) to create increased collaboration with supply chain and more support for the overall patient experience.

In our presentation we will review key elements required for providing patient-centric, value-based procedural care and explore how to overcome long-standing barriers to making the shift to value-based healthcare, complete with examples of successful value-based initiatives that illustrate the elements of quality measures and successful cross-team collaboration.

This webinar presents the results of a survey that assessed whether the knowledge and attitudes of perioperative registered nurses (RNs) involved in operative procedures were associated with the practices of covering and observing prepared sterile tables during periods of delay or non-use. The researchers surveyed 18,196 members of the Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) and received responses from 1613 RNs. The responses of the 857 RNs who completed the survey were included in the analysis. The results showed that both knowledge and attitudes were associated with practice.

The operating room is one of the most expensive and operationally challenging areas in the hospital, making up 40% to 60% of total hospital supply costs.* These high-cost supplies flow through varied processes, some with specific requirements around tracking, documentation, and compliance. As hospitals adapt to meet meaningful use criteria, adoption of technology has never been greater, with ORs often using a patchwork of systems to address specific needs. Learn how Cardinal Health has helped OR teams transform their supply chain and gain control of supply flow to ensure products are at the right place at the right time to support optimal patient care.

A recent study by Navigant has shown that supply chains at top US hospitals are saving up to $23 billion each year.* Traditional inventory management practices are linked to waste, higher costs, and inefficiencies in the supply chain. Identifying best practices such as supply optimization, encouraging physician engagement, and automation is key to enabling successful supply chain and clinical operations. Join Lisa Stepps and Suzanne Champion, MBA, BSN, RN, CNOR, as they discuss how they’ve overcome barriers and used automation as a channel not only to reduce inventory costs and waste, but also to enhance the clinical workflow, allowing clinicians to focus on what matters most—the patient.

Today’s typical US hospital OR staff face daunting challenges: high patient expectations; dated, inefficient, and siloed processes; complex and expensive technology; an ongoing outmigration of volume; hostile payers requiring high-value care; limited analytics/benchmarking; and a shortage of skilled staff and surgeons who expect better service and access. Replacing current services with a streamlined, high-quality, measured process requires the cooperation and collaboration of administration, surgeons, anesthesia providers, and staff. This webinar will offer expert advice about process improvements to help mitigate these challenges.