Editor's Note Guidelines for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) about when healthcare workers should wear N95 masks are less stringent than those from California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA), Medical Xpress reported on December 21. Specifically, the CDC’s advisory committee has suggested that health workers wear surgical…

Read More

Editor's Note New data raise questions about the effectiveness of image-based AI model explanations in helping clinicians recognize systematic bias when diagnosing hospitalized patients. The findings appeared in JAMA on December 19. Researchers looked at the diagnostic accuracy of 457 hospital physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants in diagnosing patients…

Read More

Takeaways • The Joint Commission eliminated 56 redundant or outdated Elements of Performance, revised four others, and is using more checklists. • The Joint Commission is emphasizing healthcare equity and identifies it as a priority to address healthcare quality and safety, calling organizations to integrate health equity into their QAPI…

Read More

An estimated 126.6 million Americans are dealing with the impact of a musculoskeletal (MSK) condition, according to a US Bone and Joint Initiative report. That means, one in two adults in the US have gone or will be going through a wide range of hip, knee, shoulder, and/or spine procedures.…

Read More

Editor's Note Health record codes that track social, environmental, and economic influences on patient health outcomes are vastly underutilized during screening, according a December 19 EurekAlert! report on research from John Hopkins and the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.   Published in Health Affairs Scholar, the study analyzes the…

Read More

Editor’s Note US hospitals charge approximately 55% higher average fees than ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) for colonoscopies covered by private health insurance. The findings, from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, appeared as a research letter in JAMA Health Forum on December 15. The analysis is one of…

Read More

Editor's Note Starting January 1, healthcare organizations must consider an expanded timeframe and range of care services when reporting patient suicide as a sentinel event to The Joint Commission. According to the December 13 announcement of the change to the organization’s Sentinel Event Policy, the revised definition “better reflects current…

Read More

Editor's Note The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a new concept paper on the department’s strategy regarding cybersecurity for the healthcare sector, a December 6 HHS press release reports. The paper details four pillars for action:  publishing new voluntary healthcare-specific cybersecurity performance goals working with Congress…

Read More

Editor's Note A first-of-its-kind study examined a range of different professional healthcare roles during the pandemic and how they complied with precaution guidelines around infection prevention. The study, published in the American Journal of Infection Control on December 6, found statistically significant differences between job roles.  The researchers conducted a…

Read More

Editor's Note A new study finds that while opioid prescriptions for postoperative pain relief have continued to decline, that downward trend has slowed since 2020, indicating the need for continued work to right-size opioid prescriptions for surgery patients. The findings were published by JAMA Network on December 7. Researchers looking…

Read More