Directors of nursing working in ASCs often wear many hats, including staffing issues, according to Westchester, Ill.-based Regent Surgical Health.
Kathleen Bernicky and Carla Daley, RN, clinical operations leaders for Regent Surgical Health, shared how regulatory and staffing requirements are key issues for an ASC on Regent's blog:
1. Staffing. Staffing issues such as finding qualified people who will stay on at the surgery center even through seasonal fluctuations can be a challenge for directors of nursing.
"Another challenge is the nursing shortage many areas of the county are experiencing particularly with OR nurses. We have to be clever about where to look for them, and even to consider training a new nurse to be an OR nurse," Ms. Bernicky said.
2. Reporting changes. An evolving issue for directors of nursing are the changing Medicare reporting measures.
"The measures change every year, so it takes a lot of time for DONs to actually sit down and educate themselves on these measures, to monitor and collect the data, and report it," Ms. Daley said.
3. Shift to a more data-driven world. Directors of nursing will most likely have to focus more on collecting, reporting and measuring quality and benchmarking data.
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