Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 23 announced the recall by Hospira Inc (Lake Forest, Illinois) of three lots of Labetalol Hydrochloride Injection, USP, 100 mg/20 mL vial (NDC 0409-2267-25), and one lot of Labetalol Hydrochloride Injection, USP, Novaplus (NDC 0409-2267-25). The recall was initiated because…

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Editor's Note Frailty was independently associated with postoperative morbidity in patients having common ambulatory general surgery procedures (ie, hernia, breast, thyroid, or parathyroid), this study finds. In this analysis of 140,828 patients in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, the relative risk of complications was increased…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 21 announced that it has created specific versions of 19 elements of performance (EPs) for deemed ambulatory surgical centers and specific versions for federally qualified health centers and rural health clinics to improve access in the E-dition. The EPs were added for the Centers…

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Editor's Note Dedicated OR teams for a colorectal Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) program at Johns Hopkins Hospital led to anesthesia providers becoming more central to the ERAS network, which increased process measure compliance and improved clinical outcomes in this study. Before the dedicated OR teams were instituted, surgeons were…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on February 21 that users of the Center for Transforming Healthcare’s Targeted Solutions Tool (TST) for Hand Hygiene can now record their observations on any mobile device or tablet by downloading a mobile app from the Google Play or Apple app store. The mobile…

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Editor's Note In this study, implementing a global change in safety culture resulted in a significant change in surgical patient outcomes as measured by the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). After implementation of initiatives targeting communication and patient safety, surgical outcomes and culture scores…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has finalized an update to its coverage policy for implantable cardiac devices (ICDs), the February 16 Modern Healthcare reports. The update expedites patient access by eliminating the waiting period for patients with an existing ICD to obtain a replacement device…

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Editor's Note Infection risk with peripheral and epidural catheter use in continuous regional anesthesia increases over time, especially after 4 days, this study finds. Of 44,555 continuous regional anesthesia patients analyzed in this German study, the probability of infection-free catheter use decreased each day of peripheral and epidural catheter use.…

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Editor's Note Intermountain Healthcare’s (Salt Lake City, Utah) Partners in Healing program, which involves family members in in-patient care, helped reduce 30-day readmissions after cardiac surgery by 65%, the February 13 Healthcare Finance reports. The program enables family members to help with basic care, which in turn prepares them for…

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Editor's Note In this nationwide French study, bariatric surgery was associated with a significantly higher 6-year postoperative diabetes treatment discontinuation rate, compared with baseline and a control group who did not have bariatric surgery. Of more than 30,000 patients included in the study, the treatment discontinuation rate was 49.9% for…

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