Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on April 5, posted a clarification on the time frame for querying the National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB). Among the revisions: Medical Staff (MS) Standard MS.06.01.07, Element of Performance (EP) 9 and Standard MS.07.01.01, EP 3, on the time frame to evaluate a licensed practitioner’s…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on April 4, released its Sentinel Event Data 2022 Annual Review, which covered serious adverse events from January 1 through December 31, 2022. There were 1,441 sentinel events reported in 2022, a 19% increase over 2021, and a 78% increase over 2020, with COVID-19 continuing…

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Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), on March 29, issued a news report urging the public to learn to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose, now that the Food and Drug Administration has approved naloxone for sale over the counter. Naloxone, which is commonly sold as a…

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Editor's Note The World Health Organization, on March 28, announced the revision of it’s guidance for prioritizing the use of COVID-19 vaccines after the meeting of its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). The guidance was revised to reflect that much of the population has either been vaccinated…

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Editor's Note This German study finds that expectations and prior experiences were associated with increased adverse effect reports in individuals receiving their second COVID-19 vaccinations. Researchers collected data from 1,678 individuals receiving Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. Severe adverse effect reports were higher in those: expecting a lower benefit…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), on March 23, announced the launch of a National Quality Verification Program for Vascular Care (Vascular-VP). Vascular-VP helps participating hospitals improve outcomes and deliver the best treatment for patients having inpatient vascular surgical and interventional procedures.…

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Editor's Note With the demand for travel nurses rising significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, some states are proposing measures to control what staffing agencies can charge healthcare facilities that use the temporary staff, the March 17 Kaiser Health News reports. Among 11 states proposing regulations: Missouri is calling for felony…

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Editor's Note Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on March 15 amended the February 4, 2020, COVID-19 emergency use authorizations for: diagnostics for detection and/or diagnosis of COVID-19 personal respiratory protective equipment other medical devices including alternative products used as medical devices drug and biological products. These emergency…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 8 announced that it has approved new and revised requirements for hospitals and critical access hospitals certified under the Patient Blood Management Certification program, effective July 1. The requirements have been updated to maintain alignment with the Association for the Advancement of Blood…

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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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