Joint Commission posts sentinel event stats for first half of 2017
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 20 posted sentinel event statistics from its database through June 30, 2017. Of the top 10 most frequently reported sentinel events during this time period: Falls topped the list with 49 events. Unintended retention of a foreign object was 3rd with 41 events.…
Study: Bariatric surgery lowers cancer risk
Editor's Note In this large multi-site study, bariatric surgery was associated with a lower risk of cancer, particularly obesity-associated cancers, such as postmenopausal breast cancer, endometrial cancer, and colon cancer. The study included five study sites with 22,198 patients who had bariatric surgery and 66,427 nonsurgical matched subjects. At a…
More hospitals allow nurses, physicians to use own electronic devices
Editor's Note Research from Spok Inc found 71% of hospitals allow physicians and nurses to use their own electronic devices at work, compared with 58% last year, the September 21 Healthcare Informatics reports. The researchers also found that: 38% of physicians favored having a hospital-issued device, and they use an…
FDA: Class I recall of Spectraneticsโ Bridge Occlusion Balloon Catheter
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 25 categorized the recall by Spectranetics (Colorado Springs, Colorado) of its Bridge Occlusion Balloon Catheter (model 590-001) as Class I, the most serious. The Bridge Occlusion Balloon Catheter is used to temporarily block the superior vena cava when emergency control…
Strategies for retaining, recruiting mature experienced nurses
Editor's Note No single key retention strategy solves the issue of keeping older nurses in the workplace but, rather, a multifaceted approach is necessary, this study finds. An exploratory study was conducted at a 730-bed teaching hospital in northeast Ohio using four focus groups of staff nursesโthree groups consisted of…
ECRI Institute's new SERVICEguide helps reduce costs of outsourced services
Editor's Note SERVICEguide is the ECRI Instituteโs new membership-based advisory service that helps hospitals maintain and manage their outsourced services. SERVICEguide includes an interactive assessment dashboard with spend analytics that reveal the highest potential areas for savings. Recently, for example, ECRI Institute helped a large healthcare system save more than…
Nearly a third of consumers lack easy access to medical records
Editor's Note An Ambra Health survey found that 31% of more than 1,100 healthcare consumers were not able to easily access their medical records, and only half of those had access to their records online through their health care practitioner, the September 19 Healthcare Informatics reports. The survey also found…
Mode of transport to hospital linked to mortality in penetrating trauma patients
Editor's Note Private vehicle transport was associated with a significantly lower likelihood of death compared with ground emergency medical services (EMS) transport for patients with gunshot and stab wounds in this study. In this analysis of 103,029 patients in the National Trauma Data Bank, 87.6% were male, 47.9% were black,…
Joint Commission: Top five most challenging requirements for 2017
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 20 announced the top five most challenging requirements for the first half of 2017. The top five requirements identified most frequently as โnot compliantโ during surveys and reviews for hospital accreditation were: 86%--LS.02.01.35: The hospital provides and maintains systems for extinguishing fires. 74%--LS.02.01.30:…
Gastric bypass found to be durable long term
Editor's Note This 12-year study showed long-term durability of weight loss and effective remission and prevention of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery. For the study, 1,156 severely obese patients were divided into three groups: 418 who sought and had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (surgery group),…