Outpatient Surgery Magazine - Subscribers

Accreditation Dings - August 2013 - Outpatient Surgery Magazine

Outpatient Surgery Magazine, providing current information on Surgical Services, Surgical Facility Administration, Outpatient Surgery News and Trends, OR Excellence and more.

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OSE_1308_part3_Layout 1 8/8/13 11:10 AM Page 131 BEHIND CLOSED DOORS trapeze artists from materials management, who fly between the supply room and the OR, stocking and pulling supplies and making sure the things you need from the preference cards are there when you need them. Don't overlook the equipment tech strongman, who moves the towers, pushes the C-arm and positions the fracture table. Our central sterile crew works like trained seals. Who else performs so diligently, clapping their fins for such a small amount of credit? Where would we be without them? I'll tell you where we'd be: Down in central sterile, washing, rinsing, drying, counting, wrapping and autoclaving all the instruments ourselves. I haven't even mentioned the dog-and-pony show of manufacturers' reps trotting in and out of the OR. Everyone knows they're here to drum up business. But really, by this point they know so much more than even the surgeon does about the expensive, streamlined titanium implant that's about to become part of the patient, that it's reassuring to have them around. And we can't fail to salute the ringmaster at the administrator's desk. No one jumps through so many hoops to keep a facility running: From nimbly balancing the budget, to daringly juggling the surgeons who want block time and the surgeons who are going to lose block time, to deftly entertaining the clowns wearing the big shoes of a survey organization. Sometimes in the trenches of surgery, we gripe that they have no idea what our jobs are like, but I wouldn't want to trade places with them. Whichever performer you are, and whichever ring you're starring in, it takes all of us to fill that big top. Some days you can't help feeling like the human cannonball, just hoping you'll land in that net, but most days it's great to have a front-row seat. OSM Ms. Watkins can be reached at pwatkins12@comcast.net. A U G U S T 2013 | O U T PAT 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 1 3 1

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