Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 12, announced that it and the American Heart Association (AHA) have revised requirements for the Advanced Certification in Heart Failure program to align with the latest clinical practice guidelines for heart failure, effective January 1, 2024. Requirements for interdisciplinary team members have been…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 12, announced that it is making several changes to its critical access hospital (CAH) elements of performance (EPs) to better align with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation, effective August 27, 2023. The changes are part of CMS’…

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Editor's Note The 2023 OR Manager Conference this week announced a new luncheon, “Quality Measure Reporting Updates for ASCs,” to be presented Monday, September 18, at 12:10 pm. The session led by Gina Throneberry, MBA, RN, CASC, CNOR, director of education and clinical affairs for the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association,…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 5, announced that the Primary Stroke Center (PSC) Certification performance measure Stroke Volume (STK-VOL-1) is being renamed to Ischemic Stroke Patients who Receive Mechanical Endovascular Reperfusion Therapy, which removes the word “eligible” from the title. The change distinguishes ischemic stroke patients who receive…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 5, announced that it had updated its Health Care Equity (HCE) Accreditation Standards & Resource Center and its HCE Certification Resource Center to help organizations meet healthcare equity requirements. New resources in the HCE Accreditation Standards & Resource Center include: the feasibility of…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on July 11, identified the recall by Megadyne of its Mega 2000 and Mega Soft reusable patient return electrodes as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated after Megadyne received reports of pediatric and adult patients receiving burn injuries during…

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Editor's Note Overall healthcare employment in the US was up in June to a seasonally adjusted 16,844,800 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on July 7. That’s up 41,100 since May. Hospital employment also was up by 15,000 jobs. The overall unemployment rate fell in June to 3.7%, for…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 5, announced that its surveyors will no longer be evaluating compliance with the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for accreditation. The standard will remain in the current manual until the next standards release later this year, The Joint Commission says.

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Editor's Note Since the divisive ruling on affirmative action from the US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on June 29, which stated that "colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis in admissions—a landmark decision that will have profound impacts on higher education institutions including medical…

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Editor's Note In a June 27 letter, the American Hospital Association (AHA) urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) “to avoid disrupting healthcare delivery through the unintentional fracturing” of the medical device supply chain with its proposed ethylene oxide (EtO) standards. The EPA proposes: reducing EtO emissions by 80% adding new…

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