Editor's Note The nursing workforce is growing more diverse and educated, and relationships between nurses and physicians are improving, finds this study. Data on nearly 5,000 nurses in 13 states were included in the study. The nurses comprised four cohorts who were surveyed in 2006, 2009, 2012, and 2016. Significantly…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission has abandoned proposed amendments to its accreditation standards that would have required healthcare systems to obtain patient consent, confirm patient location, and predict a patient’s financial responsibility before providing telehealth services, the October 11 mHealth Intelligence reports. The changes, which would have amended two existing…

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Editor's Note Frailty was associated with postoperative morbidity in patients having ambulatory general surgery procedures, independent of age, type of anesthesia, and other comorbidities, this study finds. In this study of 140,828 patients older than 40 years of age, frailty was associated with increased adjusted odds of 30-day morbidity after…

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Editor's Note Nearly 40 members of Congress and staff on October 12 received training from surgeon members of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on how to stop life-threatening bleeding. The class was designed to teach individuals with no prior medical knowledge how to control rapid bleeding from traumatic injuries…

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Editor's Note Low-cost, high-volume healthcare services account for a high percentage of unnecessary spending, adding strain to the healthcare system, this study finds. In this analysis of 5.5 million patients in Virginia, researchers found that services providing no net health benefits cost the state’s healthcare system more than $586 million…

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Editor's Note A new app developed by students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (UWM’s) App Brewery and a neuropsychologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) monitors critical brain functions during neurosurgical procedures in which patients are awake. The app, called “NeruoMapper,” assists neurosurgeons who are removing tumors by helping…

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Editor's Note Risk assessments of postoperative complications and death in surgically complex patients were not significantly different between internal medicine and general surgery residents in this study. However, both groups overestimated the risks compared with the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS NSQIP) risk adjusted model.…

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Editor's Note The Philadelphia Pediatric Medical Device Consortium (PPMDC) has chosen two companies out of eight finalists to receive grants of $50,000 each to develop medical devices for children. The devices include a: speech generating system that allows hospitalized children who are unable to speak to communicate with clinicians handheld…

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Editor's Note Surgical patients who received antibiotic prophylaxis before low-risk procedures did not have an increased risk for postoperative antibiotic-resistant infections, this study finds. Of 22,138 patients included in the analysis, 689 developed an infection within 30 days after surgery. Of these, 550 (80%) had received antibiotic prophylaxis, and 338…

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Editor's Note In response to the destruction caused by hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, the ECRI Institute is providing free access to resources, publications, and tools to help guide healthcare facilities affected by natural disasters. The Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Resource Center, which includes links to material from the ECRI…

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