Same-Day Surgery – February 1, 2005
February 1, 2005
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If surgery patients call back following discharge, do staff know their limits?
An outpatient surgery patient called back after discharge with complaints that indicated significant internal bleeding, but the staff member who answered the phone didnt recognize the signs and didnt refer the person to emergency care or a physician. By the next day, the patient had died. -
Scope repair costs cut by $12,000 in one center
Determining the best way to sterilize and repair a flexible endoscopes damage after its been used to check an airplane gas tank for leaks is not a problem that most same-day surgery managers encounter. Staff members and physicians understand more about the fragile nature of scopes than they did 15 years ago, when this incident occurred at a hospital-based outpatient surgery program. -
Ongoing education keeps awareness up, costs down
Dissecting an endoscope to see what the interior components looked like was fun for the staff at Green Spring Station Endoscopy in Lutherville, MD. More importantly, it was educational and the perfect first step in the same-day surgery programs effort to improve handling and care of scopes to reduce the cost of repair. -
Failing SDS program? Address multiple causes
There usually is more than one reason a same-day surgery program doesnt show a profit, and at Brookside Ambulatory Surgery Center in Battle Creek, MI, management had to address multiple issues to turn the center from a program that had accounts receivable of 80 days, operating rooms that were used 20% of the time, and staff costs that represented 50% of overhead expenses. -
Increase cases from 250 to 350 per month
In addition to the problems of high staff costs, outstanding debts, and overpriced supplies, outpatient surgery programs that are not performing well often have underutilized procedure and operating rooms, according to experts interviewed by Same-Day Surgery. -
Same-Day Surgery Manager
The average surgical corridor looks like the ending scenes in a disaster movie where all the actors claim, We can rebuild it and make it better than it was. Look around your facility, and you will see what Im talking about: a mess. Over the months and years, our eyes have filtered it out. We minimize the optical clutter, but it still is there. -
HIPAA Q&A
What are the deadlines for compliance with the HIPAA security rule? What happens to noncompliant providers on April 20, 2005? Where should I start when putting together my compliance plan? -
CMS releases first of 7 security white papers
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released one of seven guidance papers on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) security rule. -
Correction