Outpatient Surgery Magazine has launched the first and only discussion board created specifically for surgical facility managers. It's called "Second Opinions," and it's located on our Web site.

Particpiating couldn't be easier. If you've registered to view content on our Web site, you're already registered to contribute to the discussion board. All you have to do is choose how your name will appear: You can promote as much notoriety or preserve as much anonymity as you choose. If you've not registered on our Web site, it takes about 5 minutes to do so, and it's free.

"Second Opinions" aims to provide a way for the nearly 20,000 individuals who use Outpatient Surgery's Web site each month to network with and seek advice from one another. After all, who's more qualified to understand the issues involved in running a surgical facility than your professional peers? And some of your most knowledgeable peers are regular visitors to our site. Grappling with an issue? Got an experience to share? Able to help solve a colleague's challenge? Bring it to "Second Opinions."

Even if you choose not to participate right away, it's an educational and even fun way to find out what the industry's buzzing about, what issues your peers are facing and the advice that's being offered.

Dan O'Connor

About 1,300 non-accredited ambulatory surgery centers in 43 states can expect a visit from a state surveyor over the next 12 months thanks to $9 million in federal stimulus funds the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has earmarked to promote infection prevention practices, federal officials say.

The funding, supplied by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed earlier this year, follows an earlier injection against infection. The surveying program was prompted by well-publicized outbreaks of healthcare-acquired infections, including hepatitis C and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

"Patients who go to stand-alone surgical centers will have greater assurance that they won't come home with a new infection," says HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a press release issued last week.

Kent Steinriede

A recovery room nurse at a Bellevue, Wash., plastic surgery ASC was sentenced in federal court to 366 days' imprisonment earlier this month for engaging in product tampering to divert Demerol.

Drea Lynne Gibson, 43, who worked at the Plastic Surgery Center from 2003 until 2008, was also ordered to complete 3 years of supervised release following her incarceration.

According to prosecutors, Ms. Gibson admitted to the thefts which, driven by addiction, began as she drank leftover portions of the opioid analgesic from glass ampules and reported them as waste, and eventually led to her breaking ampules open, consuming the contents, refilling them with saline and resealing them with instant glue.

You can read more about this case, and about the issue of drug abuse among healthcare providers, in the cover story of the upcoming December issue of Outpatient Surgery Magazine.

David Bernard

Looking for a no-muss, no-fuss specialty to add to your surgical center? You might want to consider which surgeons will make the smoothest transition into an ASC environment, says Tyler P. Merrill, a vice president of business development for Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America.

"Consider the ease of recruitment and the speed with which the surgeons have proven they can ramp up their cases in a surgical center," says Mr. Merrill. Vote for the breed of surgeon you believe to be most compliant in this week's InstaPoll. We'll report the results in this space next week.

Last week, we asked if your facility was experiencing a propofol shortage. More than four-fifths (83%) of the 95 facility managers who replied said they were.

Dan O'Connor