How to Make a Turnover Pack
Put the items you need to turn over every room together in a self-contained kit.

In the center of a fresh bed sheet for your OR table, place a trash bag and two towels for your arm boards. Then fold the sheet in on itself for easy storage. There you have it - a turnover pack. It's simple, but its benefits are many, chief among them preventing staff from running to three different places (in our case, a substerile back room, a janitor's closet down the hall and a shelving unit within the OR) to retrieve the items they'll need to turn over every case. Having everything right there at your fingertips to facilitate room turnover saves time and increases efficiency. My staff resisted this idea of turnover packs first. Now they can't live without them. Michael O'Hara, RN

Nurse Manager
Specialists One Day Surgery
Syracuse, N.Y.
writeMail("mohara@sosbones.com")