In August, Catherine Kane, clinical specialist at Pall Corporation, spoke to TASCS members about the dangers of surgical smoke in the operating room and how to deal with this hazard in surgery centers.
“Each year, an estimated 500,000 workers, including surgeons, nurses, anesthesiologists and surgical technologists, are exposed to laser or electrosurgical smoke,” Kane said, citing OSHA.
Last month, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society hosted its annual conference in Fort Worth. For (10) years, TASCS has hosted this conference to educate and build connections within the healthcare community. This year, the conference faced a new challenge, with COVID and its variants, but the society made sure to provide masks, temperature-testing and other safety measures — including sponsor DisinfectWell’s disinfecting system — to create a comfortable environment for the 145 guests.
ImageFIRST Provides The Healthcare Industry With Laundering (& So Much More)
Ambulatory surgery centers have been around since 1970, and National ASC Month is celebrated each year in August. During this time, facilities can boost awareness and help inform more people about the benefits of ASCs.
Robert Marinich is the head of sales at HST Pathways and has been working there for almost 10 years. During this time, he has fallen in love with the job and feels blessed to wake up every day, getting to help the healthcare industry with efficiency, cost-savings and so much more. “We care less about the politics and more about the client,” Marinich said. “And this client-first mentality is key to success.”
HST Pathways offers technological solutions and innovations for ambulatory surgery centers through several programs: case coordination, practice management and electronic health records. These programs work in tandem to create the ultimate experience for patient caregivers, and these three services bundled together computerize every step of the process to make for a more efficient facility that allows caregivers to spend more time with the patients and less time charting.
Facing a pandemic over this past year has been a whirlwind for the healthcare industry. Throughout all the problems that arose, though, people began to step up and go above and beyond in their healthcare roles. The Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society sent out a survey to find out who members believe are emerging leaders in the surgery center community … caregivers and administrators alike, who truly stepped up and shined in their roles.
Three administrators stood out to the TASCS members as emerging leaders in the world of ambulatory care.
On June 24, Laura Schneider, the senior clinical director at AMSURG, explained some key issues and tips for running drills in ambulatory surgery centers. With over 40 years of experience in the healthcare industry, Schneider has dealt with most situations for which these drills are built to help staff be ready.
One of the biggest differences between hospitals and surgery centers is the amount of resources they have, so when ASCs are preparing for potential emergencies, it’s important that they allocate their resources and staff effectively. “There’s not always extra people around, so you’ve got to use your resources wisely,” Schneider said. “You want to make sure you’re prepared.”
After over a year of virtual meetings during the pandemic, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society got back to in-person events on June 23. The event, held at Austin Eastciders, was the first stop on TASCS’s Member Networking Texas Tour, which safely helps the healthcare community network.
In attendance was Woody Moore, the founder of this organization, who said he was proud of TASCS executive director Krista DuRapau’s hard work towards keeping the society relevant during the pandemic. “Many advocacy organizations have not survived so (DuRapau’s) work and that of (TASCS’s) board going forward is immensely important,” Moore said. “Now in its 50th year, the ASC sector is once again in an aggressive growth phase with a number of models in play.”
The Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society has a new board member: Jeff Blankinship!
This World Health Day, What Are You Doing To Build A Fairer, Healthier World?
By TASCS Board Member James McClung, Chief Development Officer of Reliant Medical Services
Membership Monday: Digestive Health Center of Allen
ASC Accreditation During The COVID-19 Pandemic
The Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society provides members with information and education through bi-weekly virtual town halls. On February 11, members learned what to expect in regards to surveys for accreditation programs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In order to provide members with information and education, even in the midst of a pandemic, the Texas Ambulatory Surgery Center Society (TASCS) has been holding virtual town halls. The latest one took place on Jan. 28 and was about controlled medication logs in ambulatory surgery centers.
It was a focused, brief, yet very informative symposium from two of Texas’ top experts on the topic, Diane Buffington of Surgical Care Affiliates and Chris Dembny of Dembny Pharmacy Consultants LLC.
Austin, Texas-based Pain Specialists of America named Pankaj Mehta, MD, as its chief medical officer, according to a Feb. 2 news release.
Dr. Mehta is a board-certified anesthesiologist who gained national recognition for his contributions to interventional pain medicine, the release said. He is a leader in pain management with a focus on spine pain, headaches, spinal stenosis, abdominal and pelvic pain. He trained at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston, before completing a fellowship at Cleveland Clinic.
Kim Russell is the chief executive officer of Westlake Hills Surgery Center. She is also an athlete, a four-times world champion gold medalist in racquetball, an animal rescuer, a mother of two girls and a leader in the industry.
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https://www.texasascsociety.org/are-you-asking-patients-if-they-have-had-the-covid-19-vaccine
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