Editor's Note In this study, preoperative frailty was associated with a high risk for delirium after cardiac surgery. Of 55 patients included in the analysis, the prevalence of frailty was 30.9%. Frail patient had a higher incidence of delirium (47.1%) compared with nonfrail patients (2.6%). Frailty may be used to…

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Editor's Note The American Hospital Association (AHA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on August 11 hosted a call for healthcare leaders on the latest Zika virus developments and how to protect patients and caregivers, the August 11 AHA News Now reports. CDC officials said they will soon…

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Editor's Note Implementation of an Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) helped reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) from 8.6% to 1.1% at the Medical University of South Carolina hospital, AHRQ reports. The hospital infection prevention team focused on achieving zero CAUTIs by improving…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on August 10 released its updated sentinel event statistics through the second quarter of 2016. Of 439 sentinel events reviewed, two of the most frequently reported types of events in the second quarter were unintended retention of a foreign body (52 patients) and wrong-patient, wrong-site,…

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Editor's Note Nearly 20% of patients are discharged before all vital signs are stable, which is associated with an increased risk of readmission and death, this study finds. Of 32,835 patients from six Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, hospitals analyzed, researchers found abnormalities in temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, and…

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Editor's Note Medicare Advantage plans paid hospitals 8% less for hospital services than fee-for-service Medicare in 2009 and 2012, finds this study. Researchers also found that commercial insurers paid hospitals much higher than Medicare Advantage or fee-for-service Medicare. Some of this difference is because of higher prices commercial plans pay…

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Editor's Note Medicare’s value-based purchasing (VBP) program revealed superior performance associated with physician owned surgical hospitals in this study. Researchers analyzed 3,089 hospitals that included physician-owned surgical, University HealthSystem Consortium, US News & World Report Honor Roll, Kaiser Permanente, and Accountable Care Organization hospitals. Estimated mean total performance scores were…

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Editor's Note Patients in rural hospitals are significantly (14%) more likely than nonrural patients to die after traumatic injuries, this study finds. The disparity was greatest for injuries occurring in the South and Midwest and for cases with an injury severity score of <9 or unknown severity. Distance and time…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 8 published draft guidance on when medical device manufacturers and software developers must obtain FDA clearance before making changes to existing products, the August 8 Modern Healthcare reports. The draft says if the “overall structure” of a device’s software is…

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Editor's Note Hospitals can avoid medical-surgical patient handoff errors by using a web-based handoff tool to improve communication among physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers, this study finds. Of 5,407 patients included in the study, 77 errors were detected before implementation of the handoff tool versus 45 after implementation. Brigham…

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