Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 30 identified the recall by Medtronic of its Mahurkar Acute Dual Lumen High Flow (13.5 French) Hemodialysis Catheters (Mahurkar QPlus) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a potential catheter hub defect that may cause…
Editor's Note Inaccurately recording anesthesia start times is common and results in significant lost billing time for anesthesia practices and medical centers, finds a study presented January 26 at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2023, in Orlando, Florida. The researchers, from Northwestern University McGaw Medical Center in Chicago, analyzed…
Editor's Note The Biden administration announced on January 30 that it will end the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11, the January 31 APnews reports. The move gives healthcare providers and other stakeholders about 100 days to prepare for the termination. The national and public health emergencies…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 27 announced that it is proposing to ease blood donation restrictions by focusing on behavior rather than gender and sexual identity. Under current rules, the FDA allows donations from gay and bisexual men if they haven’t had sex with another…
Editor's Note This study led by researchers from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, finds that characteristics of patients’ neighborhoods and hospitals where they received treatment were both associated with postoperative mortality. This analysis included 1,898,829 Medicare beneficiaries from all neighborhood types undergoing one of five common surgical procedures in…
Editor's Note State Boards of Nursing are investigating those who allegedly bought fraudulent nursing degrees and diplomas as part of a widespread scheme to fast-track the process to take the National Council Licensure Examination, the January 27 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. Twenty-five individuals have been charged by the Justice Department…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 27 posted an addition to the Class I recall by LivaNova (TandemLife) of its LifeSPARC System Controller. The addition to the recall provides information about a software update now available to address the previous software malfunction and recall. The System…
Editor's Note Part 2 of the Benchmark Questionnaire is now open. We ask that you take 10 minutes to participate in Part 2 of this survey to help highlight best OR practices for our readers. There is scarce information currently available about perioperative industry averages and OR operations best practices.…
Editor's Note A study done by investigators from Yale, Harvard, and the University of California-San Francisco, published on January 10 in JAMA, found that “many medical devices subject to recall had received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval based, in part, on the products’ similarities to earlier devices,” Healthcare Purchasing…
Editor's Note This study of Swedish university students finds that procrastination is associated with a range of subsequent adverse health outcomes. This analysis included data on 3,525 university students from 8 universities in the greater Stockholm area and Orebro. They were followed-up at 3 time points, and 16 self-reported health…