Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on November 30 identified the recall by Synaptive Medical of its BrightMatter Guide with SurfaceTrace Registration, which is used to perform neurosurgical procedures, as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a software defect that could potentially result…

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Editor's Note The first 360-degree virtual reality (VR) accredited continuing medical education course in gastro-intestinal (GI) surgery was filmed at Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles, and is now available for streaming, Cedars-Sinai announced on December 3. The course is a collaboration between Cedars-Sinai and the streaming medical platform GIBLIB. The content closely…

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Editor's Note In this 9-year prospective cohort study from Spain, researchers identified surgical site infection (SSI) risk factors that showed the necessity  to strictly comply with wound decontamination and patient preparation protocols, reduce the length of surgical time, and identify patients requiring comprehensive monitoring. This analysis of 1,969 patients who…

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Editor's Note The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on November 28 issued a draft strategy to reduce administrative and regulatory burdens caused by electronic health records (EHRs) and health information technology (health IT). The draft “Strategy on Reducing Regulatory and Administrative Burden Relating to the Use of Health…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should measure surgeon spending at a group level or incorporate multiple years of data to reduce misclassification of surgeon performance in its Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) program, this study finds. University of Michigan researchers found that annual cost-profiles of individual…

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Each year, more than 2.5 million adults in the US develop pressure ulcers, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). These lesions bring pain, risk for serious infection, and increased healthcare utilization. Data on the costs of treatment vary, but some estimates range between $37,800 and $70,000…

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Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) led the list of newer patient care models in use at hospitals that employ respondents to the 2018 OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. A total of 42% of hospital-based OR leaders said ERAS had been or would soon be implemented in their facilities, down slightly from…

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Inefficiencies in surgical case scheduling can lead to large revenue losses. When leaders at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center (SHMC) in Spokane, Washington, realized poor room utilization was the cause of more than $1 million in annual overtime costs, they knew that better planning was needed. “For every 60 minutes…

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Editor's Note In patients having coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, no significant difference was found in the risk of major adverse cardiac events between open and endoscopic vein-graft harvesting procedures, this study finds. In this analysis of 1,150 patients at 16 Veterans Affairs centers over a median follow-up of…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on November 7 announced a new requirement of participation in a national joint replacement registry for its advanced Total Hip and Total Knee Replacement (THKR) certification, effective July 1, 2019. The Disease Specific Care Performance Measurement (DSPM) standard DSPM.4, element of performance (EP) 2 will…

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