Environmental concerns in surgery in the 1990s

1. The surgical environment is the sum of the physical and the functional milieu in which surgical operative procedures are carried out in the course of patient care. 2. Although we acknowledge advances in surgical technology that have made possible a whole array of new procedures, we must be concerned with their effects on the surgical environment of the 1990s. These concerns include control of the spread of blood borne diseases and the lagging field of infectious and hazardous waste disposal. 3. The needs are clear for better departmental and institutional master planning, better systems analysis, better inservice training of personnel, and more precise and functional programming and planning. All must be accomplished within a framework of safety, efficiency, and economy.