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

Posted on by Zack McElgunn
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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Heart Attacks Under-Diagnosed in Women

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

A recent study published by the British Heart Foundation found that a new, more sensitive and gender-specific troponin test developed by ACVP partner Abbott could double rates of heart attack diagnosis in women.

As it stands, despite statistics showing that men and women die from heart disease at equal rates in the US, only ten percent of women reporting chest pains will be diagnosed with a heart attack as opposed to twenty percent of men.

This inaccurate spread results from a single diagnostic threshold for both men and women, despite the fact that troponin levels can be twice as high in men than in women.

The Abbott ARCHITECT stat High Sensitive Troponin-I test can detect much lower levels of troponin, and when combined with gender-specific diagnostic thresholds, can double the rate of heart attack diagnoses in women to levels comparable to the diagnosis rate in men.

Do lower diagnosis rates affect your work in the cath lab?

Are more women admitted for emergency catheterizations due to lower diagnosis rates of heart attack risk? What's your experience?

How to Use the New ACVP Website

Posted on by Kurt Jensen

I'm Kurt Jensen, and I was recently added to the ACVP team as the Communications Director. I'm here to improve internal communications between members and provide you with more and more valuable information than ever before.

Our first step was to improve the design and usability of the ACVP website. I implemented this design, and I want to help you use it to its full potential.

First, you have to log-in. Your email, the same one you used for the last site, will work as your username, and you will be able to use this one account to access and contribute to all the members-only content on the site, like this post for example.

You may need to request a new password. Simply select forgot password, and a new password will be emailed to you. Once you've logged in you can change your password on the profile page.

Do this now by using the form on the sidebar. --->

Then click "continue reading" to learn more about the powerful new website.

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