September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month
Editor's Note September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, with National Suicide Prevention Week taking place from September 4 to 10. The American Hospital Association (AHA) highlights resources available to individuals in an effort to reduce the occurrence of suicide and destigmatize the conversations around it. Throughout the month, AHA will…
CVS, Amazon make billion-dollar healthcare acquisition bids
Editor's Note CVS Health announced on Monday, September 5, that it entered into a definitive agreement with Signify Health, under which CVS will acquire Signify Health for approximately $8 billion (at $30.50 per share). The news comes on the heels of Amazon’s announcement on July 21 that it plans to…
Editor's pick: 10 tools for perioperative leadership success
Editor's Note Any leadership position in a modern perioperative leadership department requires a nurse who is skilled at making business decisions that promote patient and staff safety and quality care. The skill set is always evolving and requires constant reforming and fine tuning. This job involves not only leadership and…
New HHS fund, center to address social media and mental health
Editor's Note In an effort to address the National Mental Health Crisis, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), granted the American Academy of Pediatrics $2 million in funding to establish a National Center of Excellence on Social…
[Free Webinar] Putting the Puzzle Together: Optimize OR Capacity & Align Resources
Watch now on-demand by completing the form below. Abstract When your ORs are not efficiently utilized, revenue is lost, patient and staff satisfaction declines, and resources are misallocated. However, optimizing capacity is a complex challenge: Block schedules intended to help with efficiency can unintentionally hinder OR scheduling, resulting in underutilization.…
Effect of COVID-19 on mental health of physically active adults
Editor's Note In this study, researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology find that the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with worse mental health for physically active adults. A total of 855 physically active adults (32.6% women) completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale at two time points (ie,…
Healthcare employment up in August
Editor's Note Overall healthcare employment in the US was up in August to a seasonally adjusted 16,453,900 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on September 2. That’s up 48,200 since July. Hospital employment also was up by 14,700 jobs. The overall unemployment rate for August was 3.7%, for a…
FDA: Class I recall of Integra’s CereLink ICP Monitor
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on August 31 identified the recall by Integra of its CereLink ICP Monitor as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because the device may display incorrect values for a patient’s intracranial pressure (ICP) and display out-of-range pressure readings. If…
FDA authorizes updated COVID-19 booster vaccines
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized updated versions of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines with the goal of protecting against the recent Omicron variant, NPR August 31 reports. The updated booster, called a bivalent vaccine, offers protection from both the original strain of COVID-19 and the most…
Study: Rubber bands enhance surgical mask seal akin to N95 protection
Editor's Note In this recent study, titled “A simple surgical mask modification to pass N95 respirator-equivalent fit testing standards during the COVID-19 pandemic” and published by PLOS ONE on August 24, the use of rubber bands worn over standard 3-layer surgical masks is shown to improve the mask’s protective seal…