Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on February 9 that it has joined with Manchester Specialty Programs, Inc, to provide insurance pricing benefits to medical staffing firms that have Health Care Staffing Services Certification from The Joint Commission. Available coverage includes workers’ compensation, professional and general liability, as well as…

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Editor's Note Phoenix-based Banner Health paid a $1.25 million settlement after potential HIPAA security violations left 2.81 million consumer’s health data exposed in a 2016 data breach, Becker’s Hospital Review reports on February 3.   The potential violations include lack of analysis to determine risks of electronic health records (EHRs),…

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Editor's Note Overall healthcare employment in the US was up in January to a seasonally adjusted 16,654,400 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on February 3. That’s up 58,200 since December. Hospital employment also was up by 10,900 jobs. The overall unemployment rate for January was 3.4%, for a…

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Editor’s Note Amanda Brown, MS, RN, PCNS-BC, CNS-CP, CNOR, Nurse Professional Development Specialist, Lutheran Medical Center, Intermountain Health and recently retired Deborah Hedrick, MA, BSN, RN, NEA-BC, Director, Perioperative Services, Lutheran Medical Center, shared the creative staffing program they implemented at their institution in a Tuesday session at OR Business…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 1 announced a new search site that is available for finding Joint Commission-accredited organizations that provide substance use disorder (SUD) treatment and the levels of care they provide. Individuals seeking care, providers, state authorities, and payers can search by organization name or location…

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Editor's Note Adding more anesthesiology residency positions, even without federal funding, may help hospitals save staffing costs and address shortages of anesthesia personnel, finds a study presented January 27 at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ ADVANCE 2023, in Orlando, Florida. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center compared the…

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Editor's Note The New York Times on January 27 reported that 37% of aspiring nurses who allegedly purchased fraudulent degrees to bypass coursework and training required to sit for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX) passed the test. Many of the 7,600 individuals who paid between $10,000 and $15,000 for…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 30 identified the recall by Medtronic of its Mahurkar Acute Dual Lumen High Flow (13.5 French) Hemodialysis Catheters (Mahurkar QPlus) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a potential catheter hub defect that may cause…

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Editor's Note The Biden administration announced on January 30 that it will end the COVID-19 national and public health emergencies on May 11, the January 31 APnews reports. The move gives healthcare providers and other stakeholders about 100 days to prepare for the termination. The national and public health emergencies…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, finds that characteristics of patients’ neighborhoods and hospitals where they received treatment were both associated with postoperative mortality. This analysis included 1,898,829 Medicare beneficiaries from all neighborhood types undergoing one of five common surgical procedures in…

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