Editor's Note Accountable care organizations (ACOs) and other value-based payment (VBP) models are increasing in the US, and there is no longer any question of whether private payers and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will continue to support value-based payments, according to the August 14 Health Affairs…

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Editor's Note With the announcement by Amazon, Berkshire-Hathaway, and JP Morgan to form a nonprofit consortium to manage costs and quality of healthcare for their employees, nursing leaders are looking at its implications and asking questions: Is nursing care affordable if it is not linked to improved outcomes? What price…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on September 11 released new infection prevention resources for podiatry and orthopedic and pain management settings. Free resources include: Guide to Infection Prevention for Outpatient Podiatry Settings (available now). Guide to Infection Prevention in Orthopedic and Pain Management…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has taken steps to ensure that medical device manufacturers do as much as possible to defend against hacking and other threats to their devices, according to a new report from the Department of Health & Human Services Office of Inspector General. The…

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Editor's Note Automated performance metrics can distinguish surgeon expertise during anastomoses and create an objective, standardized way to train new surgeons, this study finds. Researchers used a data recorder plugged into a robotic surgery system to evaluate expert and novice surgeons’ movements for 70 vesicourethral anastomoses (total of 1,745 stitches)…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 10 posted the announcement by Pharm D Solutions, LLC, (Houston, Texas) that it had voluntarily issued a recall of all sterile compounded drugs because of a potential lack of sterility. The company says concerns about practices at the pharmacy that…

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Editor's Note Physician burnout was linked to a higher risk of patient safety incidents, lower patient satisfaction, and poorer care in this study. This meta-analysis of 47 studies involving more than 40,000 physicians, found that physician burnout was associated with double the odds for involvement in patient safety incidents and…

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Editor's Note US hospitals added 8,200 jobs in August to a seasonally adjusted 5,189,300, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on September 7. That is up 94,600 more employees than a year ago. Overall, healthcare employment has increased by 301,100 in the past year. The overall unemployment rate is 3.9%.

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Editor's Note Limited evidence exists about the comparative effectiveness and safety of bariatric surgical procedures in Medicare patients, this review study finds. Of 16 studies analyzed, researchers found that bariatric surgery overall, and in particular Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB), sleeve gastrectomy (SG), and adjustable gastric banding (AGB) appeared to be…

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Editor's Note Seven healthcare systems representing 500 US hospitals are forming Civica Rx, a nonprofit company that will manufacturer generic drugs, in an effort to combat shortages and skyrocketing prices, cnbc.com reported September 6. The company, which is teaming up Intermountain Healthcare, the Mayo Clinic, HCA Healthcare, and four others,…

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