Editor's Note The Joint Commission on July 20 announced a new “Healthcare Workforce Safety and Well-Being” website that provides resources to help healthcare workers (HCWs) advance the safety and resiliency of the organization. The website provides links to materials developed by The Joint Commission and healthcare-related organizations such as the…

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Editor's Note This study from the UK and France finds that sleep quality and circadian rhythms in night shift workers were poorer than in those who worked day shifts, even if they had been working the night shift for years. The analysis compares 63 night shift workers, working three or…

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Editor's Note The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI), in June, published a response rebuking a joint statement issued by several GI societies opposing the "ANSI/AAMI ST91:2021, Flexible and semi-rigid endoscope processing in health care facilities." Many of the ST91 working group were dismayed that the GI society’s…

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Editor's Note This study from the University of Washington, Seattle, finds that a group coaching program designed to reduce stress and teach resilience was associated with improved mental health outcomes in healthcare workers (HCWs) during COVID-19. A total of 153 participants provided informed consent for the study with a mean…

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Editor's Note At least six hospitals across the country have recently cut services or announced plans “to scale back care,” Becker’s Hospital Review July 19 reports. Staffing shortage was the reason each facility cited for the move. The hospitals and cut services are: UH Bedford (Ohio) Medical Center and UH…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, UCHealth, Aurora, finds an association between healthcare workers (HCWs) reporting high childcare stress and burnout during COVID-19. The researchers surveyed 58,408 HCWs in 208 organizations from October 2021 to May 2022 on their concerns about…

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Editor's Note This Italian study describes the long-term features of the immune response to COVID-19 for different ages after mild infection. In this cohort of 252 family clusters with COVID-19, the immune response persisted until 12 months after infection in all age groups, with significantly higher antibody peaks for younger…

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Editor's Note The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a surge in antimicrobial resistance in US hospitals, reversing years of progress, according to a new analysis released July 12 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). During the first year of the pandemic, antimicrobial-resistant infections and deaths increased in hospitals…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the University of Washington, Seattle, finds that methylene blue with light (MBL) photochemical treatment can be used to decontaminate personal protective equipment (PPE) contaminated with COVID-19. MBL robustly and consistently inactivated three coronaviruses, including COVID-19, with 99.8% to >99.9% virus inactivation across…

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Editor's Note This systematic review and meta-analysis from Stony Brook Cancer Center, Stony Brook University, New York City, and the University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, finds that COVID-19 pandemic measures were associated with widely reduced cancer screening services. Between January and October 2020, there was an overall decrease of: -46.7%…

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