CMS delays release of Hospital Quality Star Ratings
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on June 12 that it would postpone the planned July update to its overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings. CMS says the delay will allow time for more analysis of the effects of changes made to some of the measures…
Effect of price transparency on ASCs
Editor's Note In this survey of six ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), Johns Hopkins researchers led by Martin Makary, MD, MPH, found that the majority increased patient satisfaction, volume, and revenue after publicly listing the prices of common surgical procedures. Five centers reported an increase in patient volume by a median…
American Heart Association, Joint Commission collaborating on cardiovascular certification programs
Editor's Note The American Heart Association (AHA) and Joint Commission are partnering to enhance cardiovascular patient care through a range of disease-specific hospital certification programs, the AHA announced on June 11. Both organizations are expanding their 15-year relationship in stroke certification to in-hospital cardiovascular patient care. The expansion will consolidate…
Study identifies gaps in infection prevention practices at critical access hospitals
Editor's Note Small, rural critical access hospitals have significant gaps in their infection prevention practices, finds this new study presented June 13 at the Annual Conference of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology in Minneapolis. In 36 Nebraska hospitals analyzed, researchers found important gaps in all domains,…
Joint Commission implementing survey improvements on assessing safety culture
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 13 announced that starting this month it will be implementing survey process improvements for how it assesses safety culture in hospitals and critical access hospitals. Improvements will be implemented for all other programs by October. Among the process improvement expectations: An organization will…
Effect of neuraxial anesthesia for total joints on outcomes
Editor's Note Increased use of neuraxial anesthesia for total hip and knee patients was linked to lower hospitalization costs in this study. National data on 808,237 total knee and 371,607 total hip replacements were used in the analysis. Multivariable associations were measured between hospital neuraxial anesthesia volume (quartiles) and outcomes…
San Diego hospital in โImmediate Jeopardyโ for dirty surgical equipment
Editor's Note After a routine survey, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) declared โImmediate Jeopardyโ at UC San Diegoโs Hillcrest campus because of cleaning issues with its surgical equipment, the June 8 10News reports. A CDPH report says that deficiencies found included: trays of surgical equipment with brown stains…
Machine-learning algorithm predicts hypotension during surgery
Editor's Note In this study, researchers at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles applied machine learning to arterial pressure waveforms to develop an algorithm that predicted intraoperative hypotension 15 minutes before it occurred in 84% of cases. Two sets of data were used to build the algorithm. One set consisted…
CDC issues hepatitis A alert
Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 11 issued a Health Advisory on investigations of hepatitis A outbreaks in multiple states in people reporting drug use and/or homelessness and their contacts. From January 2017 to April 2018, the CDC has received more than 2,500 reports…
Failures in safety protocols to reduce transmission of infectious agents
Editor's Note This study from the University of Utah and University of Michigan found frequent and varied active failures in safety protocols to reduce infectious agent transmission by hospital personnel, including violations, mistakes, and slips. Researchers identified 283 failures in safety protocols, including: 102 violations (deviations from safe operating practices…