Facilitate and innovate: Ensuring speedy but safe product reviews
Surgeons are the biggest factor in any effort to streamline and standardize the purchase of new surgical devicesโand thereby lower costs. But surgeons often balk at getting involved in product review and selection because of the additional demands on their time. Two leading healthcare organizations have moved past this stumbling…
Tackling the opioid crisis through community teamwork
The opioid epidemic has risen to alarming proportions in the United States, claiming 46,000 lives in 2018. Studies and federal reports documenting evidence of narcotics overuse and addiction in patients have built momentum to curb prescribing habits. Responding to these trends, a Midwestern orthopedic practice launched a multiphase project to…
Music reduces anxiety before regional anesthesia
Editor's Note Music is a viable alternative to IV midazolam in reducing anxiety before a preoperative peripheral nerve block, this study finds. A total of 157 adult patients were randomly assigned to one of two options 3 minutes before peripheral nerve blockโeither an injection of 1-2 mg of midazolam or…
Harvard, ACS to develop value measurement program
Editor's Note The Harvard Business Schoolโs Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness has teamed up with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) to develop a value-based measurement program for hospitals and surgical practices. The program, โTransforming Healthcare Resources to Increase Value and Efficiency [ACS THRIVE],โ will be tested at 10 to…
Improving OR efficiency with machine learning prediction of case-time duration
Editor's Note In this study, researchers developed service- and surgeon-specific statistical models using linear regression and machine learning to predict case-time duration at a large academic medical center. Results showed: The machine-learning algorithm had the highest predictive capability. The surgeon-specific was superior to the service-specific model, with higher accuracies and…
FDA: Class I recall of Alaris Infusion Sets
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on July 18 identified the recall by Becton Dickinson of its Alaris Infusion Sets for the Alaris Pump Model 8100 as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of the potential for tube collapse that may cause unintended or…
Effect of incentive spirometer patient reminder after CABG
Editor's Note An incentive spirometer reminder after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) improved patient adherence and, in turn, improved the atelectasis severity score and multiple subsequent clinical outcomes, this study finds. In this study of 212 patients who had CABG surgery, 145 were randomized by hourly reminder SpiroTimer โbell onโ…
FDA: Class I recall of Neonatal ConchaSmart Breathing Circuit
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on July 17 identified the recall by Teleflex of its Neonatal ConchaSmart Breathing Circuit with Dual Heated Limb and ConchaSmart Column as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of complaints of cracks in the swivel wye adaptors, which…
Duration, type of surgical prophylaxis linked to adverse events
Editor's Note The risk of adverse events increases with each additional day of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis, and extended duration does not lead to additional surgical site infection (SSI) reductions, finds this study. In this study of 79,058 patients having surgical procedures in the VA healthcare system, increasing the duration of…
CDC: Drug overdose mortality drops for the first time in 20 years
Editor's Note The US drug overdose mortality rate dropped 5.1% to 68,557 deaths last year, compared with 72,224 in 2017, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) reported on July 17. Itโs the first time overdose mortality has declined since 1999. The CDC noted that the death counts are…