An undercover hazard: Beware of 'clean' mattresses
A patient is lying on an apparently clean bed or stretcher when blood from a previous patient oozes out of the surface. Clearly, you don’t want to put your patients through that experience. But is your facility doing enough to prevent it? For the second consecutive year, ECRI Institute addresses…
Surgical VAC mines new software for deeper look at products
After transitioning from a paper-based data and operations management system to one that uses relational database software, Lahey Hospital and Medical Center (LHMC) in Burlington, Massachusetts, saved more than $1 million in product purchases in 2017. The surgical value analysis committee (VAC) evaluated 150 product requests and managed the conversion…
2019 Medicare final payment rule brings big wins for ASCs
The holiday spirit got off to a good start at ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) across the country with the November 2, 2018, announcement of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 2019 Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System and Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program Final Rule. Several significant changes ASCs had…
[Free Webinar] What Did 857 Perioperative RNs Have to Say About Covering and Observing Sterile Tables?
What Did 857 Perioperative RNs Have to Say About Covering and Observing Sterile Tables? Thursday, March 7, 2019 | 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. ET | 1 CE [form march-2019-webinar-elevate-registration] Sponsored by:
Reduced readmissions credited to HRRP overstated
Editor's Note Medicare’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP), which penalizes readmissions for several targeted conditions, has been credited with lowering readmission rates; however, these reductions now appear to be overstated, this study finds. A concurrent change in electronic transaction standards that increased diagnostic coding allowed hospitals to document a larger…
FDA: Class I recall of Medtronic’s Synergy, Stealth Station S7 Cranial Software
Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on January 8 identified the recall of Medtronic’s Synergy Cranial Software and Stealth Station S7 Cranial Software as Class I, the most serious. The Software is used with the Stealth Station Surgical Navigation System to provide detailed 3D images of a patient’s…
Endoscopic vs open vein-graft harvesting for CABG procedures
Editor's Note No significant difference was found between endoscopic and open vein–graft harvesting in the risk of major adverse cardiac events, in this study. This analysis of 1,150 patients in 16 Veterans Affairs cardiac surgery centers found that during a median follow-up of 2.78 years, the primary outcome of a…
Joint Commission: New R3 Report goes in-depth on pain assessment, management standards
Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on January 9 the publication of a new R3 Report to help organizations better understand the new and revised pain assessment and management standards that will be effective July 1, 2019. The R3 Report, which is for behavioral healthcare organizations, nursing care centers, and…
Association of AORN’s OR attire policy with SSIs, costs
Editor's Note Implementation of AORN’s 2015 guidelines for OR attire, which also were adopted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has not decreased surgical site infections (SSIs) and has increased healthcare costs, this study finds. For the study, data were collected on general, cardiac, neuro-, orthopaedic, and gynecologic…
FDA Pre-Cert Pilot Program to promote more efficient review of digital health innovations
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 7 issued a statement from Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, on the agency’s new actions under the Digital Health Pre-Certification (Pre-Cert) Pilot Program to promote a more efficient framework for the review of safe and effective digital health innovations. Because digital…