Editor's Note In an interim final rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has delayed expansion of the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) bundled payment program and  implementation of its bundled payment programs for cardiac care from July 1 to October 1, 2017, the March 20 Modern…

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Editor's Note Managing appendicitis with antibiotics on an outpatient basis shows promise as a safe, effective, lower-cost alternative to surgery, this study finds. Of 30 patients involved in the trial, 15 were randomized to antibiotics and 14 to appendectomy. A total of 14 patients in the antibiotic group were discharged from…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 18 issued a Safety Alert for Abbott Vascular’s (Santa Clara, California) Absorb GT1 Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS). The alert was issued to inform healthcare providers of an increased rate of major adverse cardiac events in patients receiving the BVS, when…

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Editor's Note Implementation of a frailty screening initiative was associated with reduced mortality in this study. After implementing the initiative in 9,153 surgical patients, overall 30-day mortality for all patients, frail and nonfrail, decreased from 1.6% to 0.7%. Postoperative mortality decreased significantly in frail patients at 30 (12.2% to 3.8%),…

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Editor's Note Patients who live alone can recover effectively and safely at home after total hip arthroplasty (THA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA), finds this study presented March 14 at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons in San Diego. Of 638 patients analyzed (364 THA,…

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Editor's Note In this study, an automated harm trigger system developed by the Adventist Health System Patient Safety Organization (Altamonte Springs, Florida) enabled the identification of patients who may have been harmed or at risk for harm. Nurse reviewers analyzed electronic health records of current patients with positive triggers to…

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Editor's Note Providing surgeons with individualized cost feedback and surgical supply costs was associated with significantly reduced surgical supply costs, without negatively affecting patient outcomes in this study. The study involved 63 surgeons in an intervention group and 186 surgeons in a control group. Surgeons in the intervention group received…

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Editor's Note In this advisory, the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority reviews retained surgical item (RSI) events in Pennsylvania hospitals and RSI guidelines from various organizations. Analysis of events reported to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority from 2014 to 2015 reveals 112 RSIs that met the definitions of the National Quality…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission’s Targeted Solutions Tool (TST) for Hand-off Communications provides a framework for what the communication process between hospitals and skilled nursing facilities should be to reduce potential patient readmissions, the Joint Commission said in a March 15 news release. “The TST helps organizations: Facilitate examination of…

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Editor's Note Bariatric surgery performed before hip or knee replacement can reduce in-hospital and 90-day postoperative complications, finds this study presented March 14 at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons annual meeting in San Diego. Compared with morbidly obese patients who did not have bariatric surgery before joint replacement, those…

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