Editor's Note The Joint Commission on November 30 announced the launch of a new patient safety campaign—Speak Up About Vaccinations—that is designed to help patients better understand vaccines. The campaign includes: an infographic poster/flyer in three sizes an animated video a distribution guide with recommendations on how healthcare organizations can…
Editor's Note This study by researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, finds that in the COVID-19 pandemic’s early phases, most deaths were in older people, but in 2021, deaths in younger people increased while deaths in older people decreased. The researchers, using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data,…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on November 23 announced that it had updated its 2023 ORYX performance measure reporting requirements, effective January 1, 2023. Key updates for hospitals and critical access hospitals include: Three new electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs)—hospital harm, severe hypoglycemia; hospital harm, severe hyperglycemia; and ST-segment elevation…
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new memorandum on November 28 emphasizing the importance of enforcing regulations and expectations to create a safe environment for hospital staff when delivering patient care, the American Hospital Association reported on November 28. According to the memo, the…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration, on November 23, identified the recall by Baxter Hillrom of its WatchCare Incontinence Management System (IMS) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of the risk for radiofrequency (RF) emissions from WatchCare devices that may interfere with other devices,…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on November 16 identified the recall by Insulet of its Omnipod DASH Insulin Management System Personal Diabetes Manager (PDM) as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of PDM battery issues, including: Battery swelling Fluid leakage from the battery…
On September 15, 2022, AORN released its updated Guideline for Processing Flexible Endoscopes. Over the past several years, there has been significant research on flexible endoscope processing—research that met the stringent requirements and has been included in this revised guideline by AORN’s lead author and team. Endoscope processing begins with…
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on November 10 issued a report outlining its plans, “for the first time,” to improve the transparency, accountability, and completeness of health equity data across its programs. “CMS defines health equity data as the combination of quantitative and qualitative elements…
Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on November 4 posted the incidence of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) reported by US hospitals in 2021. The report showed that rates for four of six tracked infections had increased: Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) increased 7%, with the largest increase…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on November 9 that refreshed Accelerate PI Dashboard Reports are available for accredited hospitals and critical access hospitals to provide updated performance measurement data on certain quality measures. Refreshed “Other” reports contain data through the third quarter of 2021. Data in the reports comes…