Supreme Court decision could lead to legal challenges to payments, risks to healthcare regulation
Editor's Note Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulations are at risk, and legal challenges to Medicare payments are likely to rise following the Supreme Court’s overturning of the 40-year-old legal precedent Chevron deference, according to a June 28 report in Becker’s Hospital Review. "Chevron deference is the principle that when…
Vasectomies, tubal ligations rise after Supreme Court actions
Editor's Note New research highlights sharp, nationwide increases in both male and female sterilization procedures since the Supreme Court overturned landmark decision Roe vs. Wade in 2022. Published in JAMA Health Forum, the research on how many 18- to 30-year-olds were getting sterilized before and after the ruling was the…
[Free Webinar] Understanding New Technologies for Oracle® Health’s Cerner-based Surgical Teams
Jump to Registration Form Register now by completing the form below. Following the webinar, you will be able to take an evaluation and receive 1 CE. In an era of rapid technological advancement, surgical teams must leverage cutting-edge tools and practices to enhance patient care and operational efficiency while navigating…
Healthcare cybersecurity earns B+, but vulnerabilities remain
Editor's Note Although SecurityScorecard gave the US healthcare a “better than expected” B+ rating for cybersecurity in 2024, the supply chain cybersecurity firm also highlighted significant risks in application and endpoint security, HealthcareIT News reported June 25. Overall, 35% of third-party data breaches in 2023 affected healthcare organizations, the…
FDA announces Class 1 recalls for ventilators, LVAS monitors
Editor's Note The US Food and Drug Administration has announced class 1 recalls—the most severe category indicating risk of serious injury or death—for Abbot Medical’s HeartMate System Monitor and Philips Respironics OmniLab Advanced+ (OLA+) ventilator. According to the agency’s June 28 report, the recall of the HeartMate System Monitor, part…
Telehealth kiosks extend care to rural communities
These recent innovations, a subset of telemedical videoconferencing, permit otherwise-unconnected patients in remote areas to interact with doctors and nurses in real time—that is, so long as they can make their way to a local mall or other kiosk-equipped site. Although teleconferencing is used routinely in medicine and some pharmacies…
Povidone iodine noninferior to chlorhexidine gluconate for preoperative skin antisepsis
Editor's Note Amid continued debate about the best choice of preoperative skin antiseptic, findings published in JAMA June 17 show that povidone iodine in alcohol offers similar outcomes to chlorhexidine gluconate when used in alcohol. The randomized clinical trial included 3,360 patients in 3 tertiary care hospitals in Switzerland, 2,187…
Standardized handoff protocol improves OR communication
Editor's Note Findings published in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons show how a standardized handoff protocol can improve OR communication and reduce the risk of error, Medical Xpress reported on June 19. The study focused specifically on SHRIMPS, a standardized handoff protocol developed by the quality improvement…
FDA issues Class 1 recalls for two ventilator models
Editor's Note Alarm failures and missing details in instructional materials prompted the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue class 1 recalls—the most severe category indicating risk of serious injury or death—for two different ventilator models on June 27. According to the report, failure in the Ventilator Inoperative alarm…
Study: Federal antitrust action minimal relative to number of hospital mergers
Editor's Note Federal regulation of hospital mergers is inadequate, according to an April antitrust enforcement study scheduled to be published by the American Economic Association. According to a June 14 report in Modern Healthcare, researchers at universities including Harvard and Yale analyzed insurance claims data from Aetna, Humana, and UnitedHealthcare,…