Editor's Note Overlapping surgery can be safely performed without risking patient safety, this study from Emory University Hospital finds. Of 2,275 neurosurgical cases included in the analysis, 1,303 were overlapping and 972 were nonoverlapping. The researchers found no difference between overlapping and nonoverlapping neurosurgical procedures in terms of 90-day postoperative…

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Total joint procedures are gradually moving to ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) as technology, medical expertise, and cost pressures combine to make the ASC an increasingly attractive alternative to an acute care hospital. The key to success for these and other complex procedures, experts say, is a combination of careful planning,…

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Editor's Note In this study, hospitals reduced costs associated with percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs) when cardiologists performed the procedures through the radial artery and discharged patients on the same day. The analysis of 280,000 Medicare patients found that an average cost of $13,389 for the radial artery approach with same-day…

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Editor's Note A human centered design approach to OR-to-ICU patient handoffs led to improvements in the patient handover process in this study. Researchers uncovered technical and communication flaws when receiving postoperative patients at the Durham, North Carolina, Veterans Affairs Medical Center surgical ICU. The handoff process was redesigned to address…

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Editor's Note The nation’s top performing states for healthcare quality according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s updated State Snapshots are: Main Massachusetts Wisconsin New Hampshire Minnesota. State Snapshots is an interactive online resource that provides data on how each state and the District of Columbia perform on…

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Editor's Note The Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on August 23 granted its mid-year 2016 Outstanding Achievement Award to 20 accredited US cancer programs. The purposed of the award is to: raise the bar on quality cancer care recognize programs that achieve excellence in providing…

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Editor's Note For four cardiovascular and four cancer procedures, surgeon specialization was an important predictor of operative mortality, independent of volume, this study finds. Analyzing Medicare data for more than 25,000 surgeons and nearly 700,000 patients, the relative risk reduction from greater specialization in the cardiovascular procedures ranged from 15%…

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How can OR managers better prepare staff to handle crisis situations? How can they encourage teamwork? Increasingly, OR leaders are turning to simulation to answer those questions.   OR leaders who think they can’t afford a high-fidelity manikin (one that talks and exhibits physiologic changes) and state-of-the-art simulation lab might…

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Emergencies such as the one described above don’t happen frequently in the OR, but it is important to prepare for them, and simulation has emerged as an ideal educational tool. This scenario took place in a simulation lab, not a real OR, so the danger to the “patient” (manikin) consisted…

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Editor's Note When surgeons listen to their preferred music, they’re more efficient at closing incisions, and their technique improves, this study finds. Researchers asked 15 plastic surgery residents at the University of Texas to perform layered closures on pigs’ feet. Half the resident worked in a silent OR and half…

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