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O U T P AT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 4
Catching on
One of the advantages of a top-to-bottom safety initiative is that it
becomes contagious. People start looking for other ways to improve
safety and efficiency.
"In addition to standard emergency manuals, our anesthesia and
nursing staff worked together to assemble an emergency manual
that specifies treatment for common and rare surgical complica-
tions," says Ms. Fairchild. "Our crew resource team audited 441 case
carts and found that 30% were incorrect. Many had errors because
pick cards were incorrect. Now we're not pulling things we don't
need, and nurses don't have to run around getting things at the last
minute. The team also redesigned the packs we use for pain man-
agement. They found we were throwing out half of the stuff in the
packs. We do 50 or more pain cases a week, so that saved a lot of
money."
Small mistakes are bound to happen, but the idea is to make sure
they don't get repeated.
"We also now have a new methodology for changing preference
cards," says Ms. Fairchild. "We hung up red pens in the ORs, so if
someone finds an error, the correction can be made right there in red
ink that's easy to see. Then the cards go back to the case coordinator
to make the correction in the system."
At Crane, if it promotes safety, it's likely to be viewed as a good
investment.
"People were saying that the wheels on our case carts were hard to
push," says Ms. Fairchild. "So we did some research and found an
alternative. It cost about $3,000 for new wheels, but if they're easier to
push — and they save somebody from a back injury — that's a good
investment for us."
— Jim Burger
