Editor's Note A heating, ventilating, and air conditioning task force on September 28 issued interim guidance to help health care facilities maintain appropriate temperature and humidity in ORs and sterile processing departments, AHA News reports. The interim guide was developed as the task force is working to achieve consensus on…

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Editor's Note Based on their analysis of systems and processes involved in OR to intensive care unit (ICU) handoffs, researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, and Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, made recommendations to reduce potential for patient harm. These included automated transfer of OR…

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Editor's Note A bundled payment program for total hip replacement was associated with similar total costs, lower posthospital costs, shorter length of stay, and similar or higher quality hospital care, in this study. Compared to controls, bundled payment patients had similar length of stay (3.0 vs 3.4 days), higher rates…

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Editor's Note A Government Accountability Office study finds that although extensive testing of transition to ICD-10 codes has been done, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will not know the true functionality of the systems until code processing begins October 1, Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review reports.…

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Editor's Note All lots of sterile products aseptically compounded and packaged by US Compounding have been recalled because of concern by the Food and Drug Administration over a lack of sterility assurance. The sterile products were distributed nationwide between March 14 and September 9, 2015.   Posted 09/24/2015] AUDIENCE: Health…

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Editor's Note Ambulatory surgery centers in California face new regulations and oversight under a new law, which takes effect January 1, 2016. New regulatory requirements include peer-review evaluations every 2 years for physicians and surgeons working in ASCs and unannounced inspections of facilities.   SB 396 makes minor changes to…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission has removed the Life Safety (LS) chapter from the Office-Based Surgery Practices Manual, effective immediately. The revision limits office-based surgery practices to a business occupancy of three or fewer patients at the same time who are rendered incapable of self-preservation in an emergency or are…

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Editor's Note Incentivizing surgeons to standardize surgical supplies led to dramatic cost savings in this study. A shared-savings program that returned 50% of money saved on surgical supplies to the surgery division realized a total cost-savings of $893,865. A total of $446,932 was shared with 15 surgery divisions. Quality of…

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Editor's Note In this pilot study of 50 surgical patients from Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, the majority preferred online postoperative visits to in-person visits. Online visits were accepted by patients and surgeons, took less time, and effectively identified patients who required further care.    

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Editor's Note Development of an anesthesia enhanced recovery pathway (ERP) at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, resulted in a 45% reduction in length of stay in colorectal surgery patients. In addition, patient satisfaction scores improved from the 37th percentile to the 97th percentile. The goals of the ERP were achieving superior…

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