Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 20 announced that it will delay until July the release of hospital quality “star ratings” on its Hospital Compare website, the April 20 Modern Healthcare reports. The ratings were scheduled to be released April 21. The delay stems…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on April 18 issued its hospital inpatient prospective payment system (PPS) proposed rule for FY 2017. The proposed rule includes: an increase in rates by 0.85% from FY 2016, after accounting for inflation and other adjustments required by law adjustments to…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration announced on April 20 the recall by Medtronic of the battery pack used in its Covidien Oridion labeled Capnostream 20 and Capnostream 20 p patient monitors. Capnostream monitors are external devices used to assess a patient’s respiratory status. The recall was initiated because…

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Editor's Note Readmission after emergency general surgery procedures is common and varies widely depending on patient factors and diagnosis categories, this study finds. Of 177,500 emergency general surgery patients, the overall 30-day readmission rate was 5.91%. Predictors of readmission included Charlson Comorbidity Index score of 2 or greater, leaving against medical…

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Editor's Note Nearly half of patient face-to-face contacts with health care providers, such as checkups, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions, were missing from electronic health records (EHRs) in this study. The problem is caused by the inability of software systems to talk to each other. Because of the 2009 Health…

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Editor's Note The addition of the clinical nurse leader role in school curriculums attests to the importance of this role in nursing, the April 18 Nurse.com reports. Nurse faculty members have the power to shape their students’ knowledge and understanding of what a nurse leader is through their attitude and…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 20 announced that Pharmakon Pharmaceuticals (Noblesville, Indiana) issued a nationwide recall of all sterile compounded products because of a lack of sterility assurance and other quality issues. The sterile products were distributed between March 4 and April 15, 2016.  …

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on April 18 issued its hospital inpatient prospective payment system (PPS) proposed rule for FY 2017 that includes two adjustments to reverse the effects of the 0.2% cut it instituted when implementing the two-midnight rule, AHA News Now reports. Included…

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Editor's Note In today’s opioid epidemic, people are looking for a scapegoat, and often it is the Joint Commission’s pain standards that take the blame, says David W. Baker, MD, MPH, FACP, in response to an April 13 letter from five dozen nonprofit groups and medical experts laying out issues…

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Editor's Note The National Institutes of Health (NIH) on April 18 announced an initiative to support research to better understand and address disparities in surgical care and outcomes for disadvantaged populations. The new program will involve collaboration among several NIH institutes and centers along with the Agency for Healthcare Research…

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