Hospital employment up again in February
Editor's Note US hospitals added 4,200 jobs in February to a seasonally adjusted 5,212,700, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on March 8. That’s up 103,200 more employees than a year ago. Overall, healthcare employment has increased 361,100 in the past year. The overall unemployment rate declined by 0.2% in…
Discharging surgical patients earlier in the day linked to LOS, hospital throughput
Editor's Note A 12-month targeted initiative to discharge surgical patients earlier was associated with a 50% increase in patients being discharged by noon in this study. The initiative, which included preoperative and inpatient components: increased discharge by noon rates from 14.3% to 21.5% decreased length of stay (LOS) from 2.17…
FDA issues letter on risks linked with staplers, implantable staples
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 8 issued a letter to alert healthcare providers about an increasing number of medical device reports on surgical staplers for internal use and implantable surgical staples. The most common reported problems include opening of the staple line, malformation of staples,…
Bacterial contamination of white coats, surgical scrubs
Editor's Note Provider attire is a potential source of pathogenic bacterial transmission in healthcare settings, this review study finds. A total of 22 articles were included in this analysis, which found that provider attire was commonly colonized by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), with white coats laundered less frequently than scrubs. The…
Joint Commission moves THKR performance measures
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 6 announced that it is moving the inpatient and outpatient Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement (THKR) implementation guides from the performance measure webpage to the 2019 Specifications Manual for Joint Commission National Quality Measures. The Manual was published in February. The move will…
Assessing and Addressing Educational Needs in ASCs
When considering educational needs in an ASC, you may have an advantage over your hospital peers. Many ASCs have specialty-specific physicians and patient populations, whereas other ASCs will have a more diverse physician group and patients. Regardless of facility specialty, employees are likely to have multiple generational learning styles. All surveying…
Levels of innovativeness in nurse executives, managers, clinical directors
Editor's Note Understanding the levels and components of innovativeness can help nurse leaders affect change in themselves and their organizations, this study concludes. A total of 137 nurse leaders in executive and management positions were surveyed on their levels of innovativeness using the Scales for Measurement of Innovativeness. Of 137…
Haven is new name for Amazon-backed healthcare venture
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…
Failure to debrief after anesthesia critical events tied to communication breakdowns
Editor's Note Failure to debrief after critical events is common in anesthesia trainees and teams, and communication breakdowns are associated with the failure to debrief, this study finds. Over a 1-year period at a large academic medical center, anesthesiology residents and some attending anesthesiologists were audited and/or interviewed about the…
Joint Commission: March 15 is deadline for CY 2018 eCQM data submission
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 6 reminded organizations submitting CY 2018 electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) data that the deadline is 8 pm CT on March 15. Two submission methods are available: Listed ORYX eCQM Vendor. Direct Data Submission Platform. There will be no extensions, and data cannot…