Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 1 announced a revision to Performance Improvement (PI) standard PI:01.01.01, Element of Performance (EP) 4, which has to do with data collection on significant discrepancies between preoperative and postoperative diagnoses. The revision was made after healthcare organizations expressed confusion with the requirement. The…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 1 announced that updated Accelerate PI Dashboard Reports, which provide performance measurement data on certain quality measures, are available for hospitals (HAPs), critical access hospitals (CAHs), ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), and nursing care centers (NCCs). ASC reports contain data through the fourth quarter…

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Editor's Note Between 2016 and 2021, some 7,600 fraudulent nursing degrees were sold to individuals so they could qualify to sit for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing exam (NCLEX), the February 27 Yahoo News reports. NCLEX is a rigorous exam that usually takes about 5 hours to…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, National Committee for Quality Assurance, and National Quality Forum announced, February 22, the release of a joint statement on digital health data exchange of social determinants of health (SDOH) assessments.  The statement begins with: “Collecting and exchanging data on SDOH connects individuals, healthcare organizations, and…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on February 22 updated the Class I recall of GE HealthCare’s Nuclear Medicine 600/800 Series systems. The recall was initiated by GE HealthCare after identifying an issue with two mechanisms that prevent uncontrolled detector movement—a risk that the ball screw, which serves…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on February 22 announced the opening of the CY 2022 Direct Data Submission Platform. The opening had been delayed to improve its stability. The delay extends submission deadlines for CY 2022 data and delays the opening of the platform for CY 2023 data. The new…

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Editor's Note More than 900 New York nurses, who studied at the seven Florida-based nursing schools that were shut down for allegedly selling fraudulent degrees, were given 14 days to prove their credentials or surrender their licenses, the February 21 Times Union reports. Another 2,400 New York students, who were…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on February 22, announced that it had approved new and revised requirements for hospitals and critical access hospitals in the Patient Blood Management certification program. The program is a voluntary 2-year certification based on the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies Standards for…

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The headlines are attention grabbing: hospitals forced to pay millions of dollars after employees were found to have stolen opioids and other controlled substances. After being discovered and investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the agents uncovered a number of issues: poor record-keeping, inventory, tracking, and other failures that…

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Editor's Note Those who experience anxiety and depression months after a mild case of COVID-19 may have brain changes that affect its function and structure, finds a study that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting in April. The study, by researchers at the University of…

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