Editor's Note Citing a response to public health concerns, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on June 7 reissued certain emergency use authorizations (EUAs) to specify which respirators are appropriate for decontamination and reuse. The FDA determined that certain respirators should not be decontaminated for reuse by healthcare professionals during…

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Editor's Note This study finds that between March 11 and April 21, nearly 42% fewer patients were admitted to Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals, compared with the preceding 6 weeks, including those who had conditions that generally required emergency treatment. The number of patients admitted decreased from 77,624 to 45,155, including…

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Editor's Note The Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) have both retracted COVID-19 treatment studies because of concerns about the validity of the data and how the research was conducted by Chicago-based Surgisphere Corp, the June 4 Medscape Medical News reports. Authors of the Lancet study, which was…

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Editor's Note This study of spine surgeons around the world found they are experiencing the effects of COVID-19, including canceled procedures, changes in clinical roles, anxiety, and risk of exposure to the disease itself because of insufficient protective equipment. Researchers evaluated survey responses from 902 spine surgeons with membership in…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons on June 3 released new resources to help surgeons and hospitals address patients’ concerns about having surgical procedures that were delayed by COVID-19. The document, “Preparing to have surgery during the time of COVID-19,” includes a patient-surgeon discussion guide with suggested questions patients…

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Editor's Note The overall incidence of COVID-19 in children who had preoperative screening was less than 1%; however, this varied greatly between regions, ranging from 0.22% to 2.65%. Included in the study were pediatric patients presenting for surgery at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, and Seattle…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on June 3 announced that it supports the following positions for healthcare organizations to prevent nosocomial COVID-19 infections as they resume routine patient care. Organizations should continue to follow CDC recommendations for universal masking of staff, patients, and visitors. Personnel should wear filtering facepiece (N95)…

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Editor's Note Patients having surgery after contracting COVID-19 are at greatly increased risk of postoperative death, this study finds. Researchers examined data for 1,128 patients from 235 hospitals in 24 countries. Overall 30-day postoperative mortality was 23.8%. Mortality was high across all subgroups including: elective surgery, 18.9% emergency surgery, 25.6%…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma says use of telehealth has grown dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, and some provisions that were extended temporarily will be made permanent, the June 2 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. During the pandemic, CMS expanded access to telehealth…

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Editor's Note This study found reduced cardiac surgery activity, redeployed personnel, and curtailed educational and research activities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Survey respondents from 60 cardiac surgery centers in 19 countries said they had reduced their cardiac surgical procedures by an average of 50% to 75% in response…

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