Editor's Note Infection after surgery during postoperative days 0 to 30 is significantly associated with long-term infection and mortality, this study finds. In this analysis of 659,486 patients from the Veterans Health Administration, 3.6% had a 30-day infection, 6.6% had a long-term infection, and 3.8% died during follow-up. At any…

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Editor's Note This study finds that the estimated cost of waste in the US health care system ranges from $760 billion to $935 billion and accounts for some 25% of healthcare spending. Projected potential savings from interventions to reduce waste, excluding savings from administrative complexity, range from $191 billion to…

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Editor's Note In this study, a machine learning algorithm resulted in the most accurate estimation of operative case-time duration. Researcher developed models to predict case-time duration using linear regression and supervised machine learning. Each model included an all-inclusive model, service-specific models, and surgeon-specific models. The data set used included 46,986…

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Editor's Note Amazon has launched Amazon Care, a virtual primary care clinic, with an option for home visits from nurses, the September 24 CNBC.com reports. Employees will have an option to see a physician, nurse practitioner, or RN via a mobile app or website, and they can text a nurse…

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Extensive research by Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, and her colleagues at Ofstead & Associates (St Paul, Minnesota) has raised concerns about insufficient reprocessing of gastrointestinal endoscopes and ureteroscopes—even when recommended practices are followed—and their new study makes a compelling case for more stringent reprocessing of bronchoscopes as well. In their…

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Editor's Note In this study of more than 1 million Medicare patients, 4.8% were super-users of healthcare and incurred 31.7% of Medicare expenditures after surgery. A machine learning approach identified the following as the most significant risk factors linked to super-utilization of healthcare in the year following surgery: hemiplegia/paraplegia weight…

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Editor's Note In this study, aggressive pulmonary treatment after surgery with oscillation and lung expansion (OLE) reduced the rate of postoperative pulmonary complications in high-risk patients having open thoracic, aortic, or upper abdominal surgery. A total of 419 patients (209 with OLE treatment and 210 without) were included in the…

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Editor's Note In its proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would give Medicare patients better access to innovative devices beginning next year, the July 30 MassDevice reports. CMS also says it might pay more for “certain transformative new devices” for inpatients, using a new technology add-on…

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Editor's Note Postoperative coffee intake after elective laparoscopic colorectal resection leads to a faster recovery of bowel function and decreases hospital length of stay, this study from Switzerland finds. A total of 115 patients were randomly assigned to the intervention group (56) receiving coffee or the control group (59) receiving…

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Editor's Note The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP), which penalizes hospitals for higher-than-expected readmission rates, did not prompt substantial changes in hospital referral patterns to skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), this study finds. However, readmissions for patients referred to SNFs decreased more than for other patients. In this analysis of nearly…

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