Editor's Note Residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Maryland and being discharged from a hospital serving a large proportion of disadvantaged neighborhoods were independently associated with increased risk of readmission in this study. 2015 data from Maryland hospitals showed a 14.1% 30-day readmission rate for patients living in neighborhoods in…

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Editor's Note Though hospitals still expect to increase their supply purchases from Amazon in the next 3 years, the percentage of respondents to a UBS Group survey who are negotiating sourcing agreements with the retailer has declined from 11% in 2018 to 7% in 2019, the July 8 Bloomberg News…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital penalization in the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program (HACRP) was not associated with significant changes in rates of hospital acquired conditions (HACs), 30-day readmissions, or 30-day mortality and does not appear to drive meaningful clinical improvements, this study finds.…

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Editor's Note The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on July 9 that it has formed a summit of key industry stakeholders and government leaders to provide insight as the Trump administration seeks to streamline, improve, and align measures used across federal healthcare quality programs. The Quality Summit,…

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Editor's Note Many patients with low back pain also have sleep disorders, which are linked to more healthcare visits and higher costs for back pain treatment, this study finds. In this analysis of 757 patients with low back pain attending self-management classes at a US military hospital, 195 had a…

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Editor's Note US hospitals added 11,200 jobs in June to a seasonally adjusted 5,244,900, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported July 5. That’s up 105,500 more employees than a year ago. Overall, healthcare employment has increased 402,800 in the past year. The overall unemployment rate is 3.8%.

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Editor's Note Preliminary experience in the automated detection and classification of fractures using artificial intelligence (AI) shows promise, and AI may enhance processing and communicating probabilistic tasks in orthopedic surgery, this study finds. For fracture detection, researchers compared the human findings in 10 studies with AI findings. In two studies,…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration on July 1 identified the recall by Edwards Lifesciences (Irvine, California) of its IntraClude Intra-Aortic Occlusion Device as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a risk of balloon rupture during use in patients undergoing cardiopulmonary bypass. The company…

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Editor's Note Use of opioids and benzodiazepines 6 months before surgery was associated with increased short- and long-term mortality and an increased rate of persistent postoperative opioid consumption, this study finds. In this analysis of 41,170 noncardiac surgical cases in 27,787 patients in Iceland, preoperative prescriptions for opioids only were…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 26 announced that, effective immediately, Human Resources (HR) standard HR.01.05.03, element of performance (EP) 15, has been deleted from the Hospital, Critical Access Hospital, Ambulatory Care, and Office-Based Surgery accreditation programs. The deleted EP is: “The [organization] verifies and documents that individuals (including…

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