FDA: Label changes for use of general anesthetic, sedation drugs in young children
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 27 issued a Safety Alert saying the agency had approved label changes on the use of general anesthetic and sedation drugs in children younger than 3 years. The changes include: A new warning that exposure to these drugs for lengthy…
Overlapping surgeries not linked to worse outcomes
Editor's Note Contrary to claims that overlapping surgeries are dangerous or harmful to patients, they were not found to be associated with worse patient outcomes in this study presented April 25 at the 2017 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting in Los Angeles. The analysis included 14,872 neurosurgical…
VA begins digitalizing healthcare data
Editor's Note The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has started converting older, inactive paper healthcare records to electronic health records (EHRs) in an effort to reduce the amount of office space used for storage of patient records and to streamline the claims processes, the April 24 EHR intelligence reports. This…
Survey examines effect of EHR outages on patient safety
Editor's Note A survey by SERMO (a global social network for physicians) of 3,086 physicians from 26 countries found that 46% have witnessed an EHR malfunction or outage that endangered a patientโs health or safety, according to the April 24 Beckerโs Health IT & CIO Review. A total of 55%…
Effect of PSH elements on total joint outcomes
Editor's Note In this study, the use of preoperative and postoperative elements of a Perioperative Surgical Home model in total knee and hip patients was associated with improvements in operational outcomes. The study included 1,225 patients in a preintervention PSH group and 1,363 in a postintervention PSH group. Compared with…
Micro-hospitals: A new trend in healthcare
Editor's Note A new trend in US healthcare, known as โmicro-hospitals,โ offers care in underserved communities and provides an alternative to emergency care at major hospitals, according to the April 24 US News & World Reports. Micro-hospitals, already built in 19 states, have an average of 8 to 10 short-stay…
Joint Commission announces first Physician Leader Forum Challenge Award
Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced April 26 that Select Medical, based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is the first recipient of its Physician Leader Forum Challenge Award. The award recognizes Select Medicalโs leading practice for wound care and prevention of pressure ulcers in patients throughout the system. An improvement project lowered…
Survey on public perceptions of overlapping surgery
Editor's Note A survey of public perceptions of overlapping surgery found that only a small minority of the general public is aware of the practice. Of 1,454 respondents, 56 (3.9%) were aware of overlapping surgery, and 440 (31%) supported or strongly supported the practice. The majority believed attending surgeons should…
VCU residents will receive training at Richmond ASC
Editor's Note Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) graduate medical students will now receive part of their resident training at MEDARVA Healthcareโs ambulatory surgery center (ASC) in Richmond, the April 19 Virginia Business reports. Residents in eight programs will rotate through Stony Point Surgery Center with VCU surgeons who use the facility.…
FDA: Hospira recalls 25% Dextrose Injection
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 24 announced the recall by Hospira (Lake Forest, Illinois) of one lot of 25% Dextrose Injection, USP, (infant) prefilled syringes because of the presence of particulate matter identified as human hair. The affected lot is NDC: 0409-1775-10, Lot 58382EV, Expiry…