Editor's Note Patients admitted to the hospital for procedures that would not be expected to require admission (ie, low-value procedures) are being harmed, consuming additional hospital resources, and delaying care for patients for whom the services would be appropriate, this Australian study finds. In this analysis of 9,330 episodes of…

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Editor's Note Intravenous (IV) acetaminophen did not result in a significant difference in pain scores, opioid consumption, or opioid-related adverse events compared with oral acetaminophen, finds this study presented March 12 at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. A total of 154 patients having total…

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Editor's Note The healthcare organization founded by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan Chase announced on March 6 its new name−Haven−along with the launching of its new website www.havenhealthcare.com. The website outlines some of the areas where Haven intends to make improvements on the current healthcare system, including access of…

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Interest in data analytics, artificial intelligence, technology, and innovation has skyrocketed with rapid advances in systems and devices designed to improve patient care. When it comes to data analytics, asking the right questions is key to finding answers that will enhance efficiency and patient safety, according to David Wyatt, PhD,…

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Editor's Note This study found no evidence that value-based incentive programs (VBIPs), which link financial incentives or penalties to hospital performance, had any measurable association with changes in catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI) rates. Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine analyzed 592 hospitals across the country, and found that…

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Editor's Note Because a subset of patients are responsible for a disproportionate share of Medicare spending, targeting high-cost patients (ie, “hot spotting”) for cost containment efforts would be an effective strategy to reduce costs in surgical patients, this study finds. Using Medicare claims data from 2010 to 2013, University of…

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Editor's Note Though Medicare Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have had some success in reducing spending for medical care, they have not had similar success with surgical spending, this study finds. Of 341,675 patients at 427 ACO hospitals and 1,024,090 patients at 1,531 non-ACO hospitals analyzed, average baseline payments were similar…

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After transitioning from a paper-based data and operations management system to one that uses relational database software, Lahey Hospital and Medical Center (LHMC) in Burlington, Massachusetts, saved more than $1 million in product purchases in 2017. The surgical value analysis committee (VAC) evaluated 150 product requests and managed the conversion…

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Editor's Note In the first 2 years of Medicare’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) program, there was a modest reduction in spending per procedure without an increase in complication rates, this study finds. Comparing costs associated with 280,161 joint replacement procedures in 803 hospitals required to participate in the…

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Editor's Note Antimicrobial treatment of asymptomatic organisms identified in preoperative urine cultures was not associated with reductions in the risk for postoperative infections, including urinary tract infections (UTIs) and surgical site infections (SSIs), this study finds. In this analysis of 68,265 patients in 109 Veterans Affairs hospitals who had cardiac,…

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