Does AORN-required operating room attire really make a difference?

Does AORN-required operating room attire really make a difference?

And disposable jackets cost how much?

A recent study argued that AORN operating room attire guidelines don't reduce surgical site infections (SSI), but they do increase costs per person by 10-20 times—much of that cost resulting from long-sleeve disposable jackets which cost approximately $1.04 per person.

The study (Elmously et al), presented at the Surgical Forum of the American College of Surgeons 104th Annual Clinical Congress in Boston, MA, last October, analyzed the link between the operating room attire guidelines introduced by the Association of Perioperative Registered nurses (AORN) in 2015 (updated in 2017), surgical site infections (SSIs), and the associated costs of these operating room attire guideline changes.

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Transradial Access: where we are

A popular hashtag among cardiologists on Twitter, #RadialFirst hopes to promote the adoption of transradial access for cardiac catheterization and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in cath labs across the world thanks to a deepening evidence base of positive outcomes.

The evidence shows that transradial access is associated with reductions in bleeding, vascular complications, and time to ambulation compared with a femoral approach. However, while the adoption of the transradial approach is increasing in the United States, the approach is not as widely used as it is in Europe, Canada and Asia—perhaps due to the challenges in the approach's learning curve.

So, what is the current state of the transradial approach in the United States? That is the question a new comprehensive literature review from the Duke Clinical Research Institute, published in Cardiovascular Innovations and Applications, set out to answer.

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Are you paid enough?

CVTs, RNs report higher wages in 2017

A national survey of cardiovascular professionals in Cath, EP and combo labs showed strong wage growth for Cardiovascular Technologists and Registered Nurses from 2015 to 2017.

National average hourly wages reported by CVTs and RNs grew significantly—from $30.81 to $33.16 and from $36.64 to $39.57, respectively—while average wages for Radiologic Technologists regressed from their 2015 highs—from $36.13 to $34.61—according to the 2017 CATH/IR/EP Wage Survey presented by SpringBoard Healthcare.

"While each licensure all had moderate wage growth between 2011 and 2013, in 2015 the trends of the different licensures diverged," reads the SpringBoard report. "RNs and CVTs actually decreased in 2015, while RTs had very strong growth (almost 6%); however, in 2017 that trend reversed as RNs and CVTs had extremely strong growth (almost 10%) while RT compensation decreased."

Take ACVP's 11 minute survey now for more complete data & detailed analysis.

Over the period SpringBoard has surveyed wage trends for Cath/IR/EP professionals—2011 to 2017—CVTs have shown the strongest wage growth "by a large margin" compared to RNs and RTs in the West, Northeast and South regions.

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Cardiac cath team gets a new member. Defining a new sub-specialty: interventional echocardiography

Structural heart procedures are growing, and so is the cath lab team.

For two straight years, Diagnostic and Interventional Cardiology (DAIC) magazine has reported from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE) Annual Scientific Sessions on the rise of a new sub-specialty—interventional echocardiography.

Interventional echocardiography crucial to structural heart

Structural heart procedures have seen rapid growth in the cath lab—and have been a featured topic at many of our 2016 regional educational conferences—and for all but the most expert interventionalists, echocardiography plays a big role in those cases.

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