CDC: Healthcare-associated infections declining
Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 19 released its current progress report on healthcare-associated infections, which includes state and national level statistics for 2017. Among the findings for acute care hospitals: Clostridium difficile infections declined by 13%. Central line-associated bloodstream infections fell by 9%. Methicillin-resistant…
Improving hand hygiene compliance among anesthesia providers in the OR
Editor's Note Educating anesthesia providers on the World Health Organizationโs five indications for hand hygiene, increasing access to hand hygiene products in the OR, and monitoring ย hand hygiene among anesthesia providers can improve hand hygiene compliance, this study finds. Hand hygiene was observed in three phases: Preimplementation, postimplementation, and 60…
FDA issues Safety Communication on cybersecurity vulnerabilities in Medtronic cardiac devices
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on March 21 issued a Safety Communication on cybersecurity vulnerabilities identified in wireless telemetry technology used for communication between Medtronicโs implantable cardiac devices, clinic programmers, and home monitors. Medtronic (Dublin, Ireland) is working on updates to address the vulnerabilities and recommends that healthcare…
Effect of care bundle on emergency laparotomy outcomes
Editor's Note Hospitals should consider adopting a care bundle approach to improve outcomes for emergency laparotomy patients, this study finds. In this analysis of 14,809 patients in 28 hospitals in the UK, reduction in unadjusted mortality (from 9.8% to 8.3%) and length of stay (from 20.1 days to 18.9 days)…
Joint Commission: eCQM Proven Practices must be submitted by April 5
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 20 announced that time is running out for organizations to submit applications for the 2019 Pioneers in Quality Proven Practices Collection. Applications must be submitted online by April 5. Among topics of interest: Demonstrating improvements in clinical performance or outcomes using electronic clinical…
Inhaled anesthetics vs total IV anesthesia for CABG surgery
Editor's Note In this study, having elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery under inhaled (ie, desflurane, isoflurane, or sevoflurane) anesthesia did not result in significantly fewer deaths than total intravenous (IV) anesthesia, though inhaled agents have cardioprotective effects. A total of 5,400 patients at 36 centers in 13 countries…
FDA issues warning letters to two breast implant manufacturers
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 19 issued warning letters to two breast implant manufacturers (Mentor Worldwide LLC of Irvine, California, and Sientra, Inc of Santa Barbara, California) for failing to comply with post-approval study requirements. All manufacturers of approved silicone gel-filled implants are required to…
After 10 years, EHRs donโt live up to promise
Editor's Note The US government claimed that digitization of healthcare records would improve the quality and value of healthcare; however, 10 years after legislation fast-tracked the move to electronic healthcare records (EHRs), even the architects of the effort agree that the $36 billion investment has not delivered as expected, the…
Cleveland Clinic launches new artificial intelligence center
Editor's Note The Cleveland Clinic has launched a new Center for Clinical Artificial Intelligence, which will focus on applying machine learning to healthcare diagnostics, predictive analytics, and treatment planning, the March 13 Health IT Analytics reports. As part of the Cleveland Clinic Enterprise Analytics division, the new center will analyze…
Effect of PPE doffing errors on healthcare worker self-contamination
Editor's Note The risk of hand contamination was higher when healthcare workers (HCWs) removed their gloves before their gowns during personal protective equipment (PPE) doffing, and HCWs who made multiple PPE doffing errors were more likely to have contaminated clothes after patient interactions, this study finds. In this analysis of…