Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 12, announced that it and the American Heart Association (AHA) have revised requirements for the Advanced Certification in Heart Failure program to align with the latest clinical practice guidelines for heart failure, effective January 1, 2024. Requirements for interdisciplinary team members have been…

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Editor's Note This study, led by researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital and the American College of Surgeons, finds that a small number of surgical procedures account for a disproportionate number of surgical site infections (SSIs) in elective pediatric surgery. This multicenter analysis included SSI data from 90 hospitals and 11,689…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 12, announced that it is making several changes to its critical access hospital (CAH) elements of performance (EPs) to better align with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Conditions of Participation, effective August 27, 2023. The changes are part of CMS’…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh, UPMC Mercy, examines OR traffic monitoring with direct observation and an automated counter. Direct observations were collected during neurosurgical procedures and included OR traffic, hand hygiene, and information on the type of healthcare worker and reason for traffic. Automated…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS), on July 10, announced the first five hospitals verified under its Emergency General Surgery Verification Program (ACS EGS-VP). EGS-VP is a surgical quality program created by ACS and the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma to help hospitals align resources and…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 5, announced that the Primary Stroke Center (PSC) Certification performance measure Stroke Volume (STK-VOL-1) is being renamed to Ischemic Stroke Patients who Receive Mechanical Endovascular Reperfusion Therapy, which removes the word “eligible” from the title. The change distinguishes ischemic stroke patients who receive…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC Los Angeles, find that patients having simultaneous bilateral total knee arthroplasties (TKAs) are at increased risk of several types of complications, compared with patients having unilateral TKAs. A total of 21,044 patients having simultaneous bilateral TKAs…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on July 11, identified the recall by Megadyne of its Mega 2000 and Mega Soft reusable patient return electrodes as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated after Megadyne received reports of pediatric and adult patients receiving burn injuries during…

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Editor's Note This study by nurse researcher Linda H. Aiken, PhD, RN, and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, finds that deliberate actions by management are needed to improve nurse staffing, clinician control over workloads, and work environments. A total of 5,312 physicians and 15,738 nurses at 60 nationally…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on July 5, announced that its surveyors will no longer be evaluating compliance with the COVID-19 vaccination requirement for accreditation. The standard will remain in the current manual until the next standards release later this year, The Joint Commission says.

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