Lower Your Water Bill, Too; Can Your Staff Restart Your Anesthesia Machines?; Surgical Site Markers: A Souvenir of Surgery; Float Nurses Can Make an OR Run Smooth; Diana Ellison, MBA, CASC; Patricia L. Atkins, RN, CNOR, BSN; Becky Johnson, RN, CIC; Kathleen H. Allen, RN, BSN, CCRN, CNOR; Bill, Too Here's; CASC Executive Director; Center; Director; Ellison, MBA, CASC Executive Director; HVAC; Hamden; MBA, CASC Executive Director; Machines? Who; Make; Markers: Souvenir; Monday; Nurses Make; ORs; PACU; Restart Anesthesia Machines? Who; Run Smooth Looking; Site Markers: Souvenir; Smooth Looking; S... show all keywordsLower Your Water Bill, Too; Can Your Staff Restart Your Anesthesia Machines?; Surgical Site Markers: A Souvenir of Surgery; Float Nurses Can Make an OR Run Smooth; Diana Ellison, MBA, CASC; Patricia L. Atkins, RN, CNOR, BSN; Becky Johnson, RN, CIC; Kathleen H. Allen, RN, BSN, CCRN, CNOR; Bill, Too Here's; CASC Executive Director; Center; Director; Ellison, MBA, CASC Executive Director; HVAC; Hamden; MBA, CASC Executive Director; Machines? Who; Make; Markers: Souvenir; Monday; Nurses Make; ORs; PACU; Restart Anesthesia Machines? Who; Run Smooth Looking; Site Markers: Souvenir; Smooth Looking; Souvenir; Staff Restart Anesthesia Machines? Who; Surgery Even; Surgery Center; Too Here's; Water Bill, Too Here's; absences; adjusted; administrator; altogether; amount; analyzed; anesthesia; anesthesiologist; asked; attention; attract; avoid; back; bag; basic; bill; bills; biomedical; board; bulletin; business; button; buttons; called; census; charge; clinical; comfortably; company; control; costs; creates; creative; crowded; day; decided; department; determined; device; display; disposable; effort; electric; engineering; equipment; evidence; experience; experienced; explanation; expression; faucets; fill; fire; fit; flash; flexible; float; format; function; good; heat; high; holding; holes; hospital; hospital-based; hours; humid; hung; imprinted; incident; increased; infection; information; infrared; installing; issue; items; kilowatt; knew; large; learned; limit; lower; machine; machines; make; making; mark; marker; mask; mentor; monthly; morning; needed; non-peak; non-sterile; nurse; nursing; offering; open; orient; ortho; overtime; pardon; passive; patient; pay; peak; perioperative; person; pictures; plan; planned; plugging; pose; post; printed; problems; quest; ran; rate; reached; recently; recovery; restart; resuscitator; retain; review; rigors; risk; roof; room; rush; save; saving; schedule; seconds; seek; sensors; serving; set; show; show-and-tell; shut; shy; sink; site; skin; souvenir; sparked; staff; start; steps; sterile; sterilizer; stretch; structures; students; suggested; suggests; support; surgeons; surgical; talent; talking; tapers; team; technique; thinking; thought; time; timely; troubleshoot; turn; turning; typical; unplanned; usage; usual; valve; veteran; wandering; warming; wash; water; weather; well-traveled; withstand; word; work; worked; working; years
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Of the many costs you seek to control in your surgical center, you might not pay much attention to your monthly electric bill. I didn't either, until our bill went through the roof when we ran our HVAC 24 hours a day during a very humid stretch of weather in an effort to keep our ORs cool. I called the electric company and asked what, if anything, we could do to lower bills that reached as high as $13,000 per month. Much to my surprise, several different rate structures were available - all I had to do was ask. The electric company even analyzed our peak and non-peak usage and determined the best plan for a business such as ours that's open only during business hours Monday through Friday. Since we adjusted our basic charge and what we pay per kilowatt hour, we've been saving about $1,000 a month. The lesson: Don't limit yourself in your thinking on items you thought weren't negotiable.
