Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, examines the association between intraoperative opioid administration and postoperative pain and opioid use. A total of 61, 249 surgical patients were included in the analysis. The researchers found that increased intraoperative: fentanyl and…

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Editor's Note This study from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, examines the use of a machine learning (ML) model to predict the suitability for having a surgical procedure performed at an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) vs a hospital-based outpatient department (HOPD). To augment a labor intensive manual process in…

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Editor's Note In an August 2 article on the Nursing Process website, Kasee Wiesen, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, ranked the 10 top-earning nursing jobs for 2023. The top 10 jobs with their national average salaries are: Certified registered nurse anesthetist: $202,804 Geriatric nurse practitioner: $157,300 Cardiology nurse practitioner: $136,845 Chief nursing…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on August 1, identified the recall by Baxter Healthcare Corporation of its SIGMA Spectrum Infusion Pump with Master Drug Library (Version 8) and Spectrum IQ Infusion System with Dose IQ Safety Software (Version 9) as Class I, the most serious. The recall…

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Editor's Note This Canadian study finds a 1.5-fold increase in costs in the year after major, elective noncardiac surgery for patients with preoperative frailty. A total of 171,576 patients (23,219 with preoperative frailty) were included in the analysis. Unadjusted costs were higher for frail patients. After adjusting for confounders, an…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on July 28, identified the recall by GE HealthCare of its TruSignal SpO2 [arterial oxygen saturation] sensors as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of issues that may reduce the amount of energy sent to the heart during…

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Editor's Note This French study examines the rate of medical confidentiality breaches in tweets by anesthesiology and intensive care healthcare workers (HCWs). Data from 431 tweets with photographs and 9,000 text-only tweets from 1,831 accounts were included in the analysis. Among the findings: There were 44 (10.2%) breaches of medical…

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Editor's Note On July 14 and 15, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) hosted a virtual event, the Anesthesia Quality and Patient Safety Meeting, which brought to light new research on when to administer epidural anesthesia in the OR, an anesthesiologist-led infection prevention program reducing rates of surgical site infections…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 19, announced that it has revised its Medication Compounding (MC) chapter for home care organizations and the Medication Compounding Certification (MDC) program, which is available to accredited hospitals, critical access hospitals, and home care pharmacy organizations. Among the revisions: Revising the requirements to…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on July 13, identified the recall by Draeger Medical of its Oxylog 3000 Plus Emergency and Transport Ventilators as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of reports that the ventilator may not automatically switch back to using AC…

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