Editor's Note According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 7-day average of daily hospitalizations caused by COVID-19 infection is up nearly 24% over the previous month, the American Hospital Association (AHA) June 6 reports. In addition, the CDC reported “nearly 30,000 hospitalizations” due to…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 29 announced that the application deadline for the "Bernard J. Tyson National Award for Excellence in Pursuit of Healthcare Equity" has been extended through July 14. The Tyson Award was established in partnership with Kaiser Permanente in honor of Bernard J. Tyson, the…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Boston University finds that maternal deaths increased 33.3% after March 2020, which corresponds with the onset of COVID-19. This is higher than the 22% overall excess death estimate associated with the pandemic. Among the findings: 1,588…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on June 28 recommended updating the composition of COVID-19 booster vaccines to target the Omicron variant. The Committee noted that booster doses consisting of an Omicron monovalent or bivalent vaccine could improve neutralizing antibody responses…

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Editor's Note According to an “electronic health information” release by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), titled “HHS Needs to Improve Communications for Breach Reporting” and published on May 27, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has seen an increase in reported breaches of health information since 2015,…

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Editor's Note Researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York City, gathered an interdisciplinary team to organize a safe and time efficient precleaning workflow for their fast-paced GI clinic that decreased time spent precleaning by 50%. The researchers identified inadequate precleaning processes, including staff who did not follow…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on June 28, announced a new Quick Safety advisory on “Managing packaged sterile supplies and devices.” The advisory provides guidance to keep patients safe from infection and harm from expired or compromised supplies and devices and urges healthcare workers (HCWs) to pay close attention to…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on June 28 identified the recall by GE Healthcare of its CARESCAPE R860 Ventilator as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because the ventilator backup batteries, including replacement backup batteries, may run out before they are expected to do…

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Editor's Note According to Politico June 25, the Biden Administration via the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) decided not to disclose the names of individual hospitals where patients contracted COVID-19, citing “privacy concerns,” Becker’s Hospital Review June 27 reports. This stance is supported by the American Hospital Association…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from the Arizona Department of Health finds that healthcare associated infections (HAIs) significantly increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs). From 2016 through 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, Arizona acute care hospitals reported that HAIs decreased significantly: CLABSIs decreased 32%.…

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