Editor's Note The Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on August 23 granted its mid-year 2016 Outstanding Achievement Award to 20 accredited US cancer programs. The purposed of the award is to: raise the bar on quality cancer care recognize programs that achieve excellence in providing…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 18 approved an expanded indication for the Sapien XT and Sapien 3 transcatheter heart valves for patients with aortic stenosis. The new indication is for patients who are at intermediate risk for death or complications associated with open-heart surgery. Previously,…

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Editor's Note Professionalism education improved surgical resident understanding, awareness, and practice of professionalism in a significant manner in this study. A year-long professionalism curriculum was developed at New York University School of Medicine, New York City, which focused on challenges such as: admitting mistakes effective communication with colleagues at all…

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Editor's Note The Advisory Panel on Hospital Outpatient Payment (HOP) on August 22 unanimously recommended that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) remove total knees from its inpatient-only list, the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association (ASCA) reports. CMS is requesting information on the feasibility of removing total knees from…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on August 18 announced in its FAQ guidelines that the 1-year grace period for claims using the ICD-10 code set will end October 1. Healthcare organizations will be required to use the correct degree of specificity when coding claims. Unspecified…

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Editor's Note Outpatient surgery for uncomplicated acute appendicitis is feasible, this study finds. A total of 240 patients were divided into intention-to-treat and per protocol (ie, no preoperative exclusion criteria) groups. There was also a subgroup of patients who were discharged to home the day before surgery. The success rate…

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Editor's Note In children undergoing staged reconstructive surgery for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, increasing cumulative exposure to volatile anesthetic agents beginning in infancy was associated with worse performance on IQ scores between ages 4 and 5, this study finds. This is the first study to link neurodevelopment outcomes with cardiac…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 19 announced the recall by Sagent Pharmaceuticals, Inc (Schaumburg, Illinois), of one lot of Oxacillin for Injection, USP, 10 g (NDC 25021-163-99) Lot OXT512 (Exp Date March 2017). The recall was initiated because of a user complaint of a vial…

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Editor's Note Implementation of a telephone postoperative clinic significantly improved utilization of surgeon and facility resources while maintaining patient outcomes, this study finds. Of 200 patients included in the study, 29 had in-person postoperative follow-up and 171 had telephone follow-up. There was no difference in rates of emergency department visits…

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Editor's Note The addition of race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status to the risk-adjusted algorithm for readmissions after total hips and knees used by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services led to a relative-performance change in readmission rates of <3% of 1,194 hospitals in this study. Policy makers and payers should…

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