Editor's Note Assigning certain anesthesiologists to specific surgeons affected team performance and turnaround time in this study. Researchers assessed the relationship between turnaround times and assignment of anesthesiologists to surgeons using a Monte Carlo simulation. They constructed managerial decision tables for the assignments, and defined a decision algorithm based on…

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Editor's Note Mount Sinai Health System (New York City) on December 6 announced its Medical Modeling Core, a collaboration led by the neurosurgery department, where clinicians can order 3D models for their cases. Virtual reality, simulation, and 3D printing services will be provided with quick turnaround times and at significant…

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Editor's Note Early discharge of patients after total joint replacement did not increase readmission rates in this study. Of 174 patients discharged after 1 day and 285 discharged after 2 days, the readmission rates for both groups were similar−2.3% vs 2.5% at 30 days and 1.1% for both groups at…

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Editor's Note Hospital and surgeon payments for routine general and orthopedic surgical procedures vary greatly, this study finds. Hospital payments averaged $12,744 for general surgery procedures and $22,386 for orthopedic procedures. Orthopedic surgeon reimbursement on average was twice as high as general surgeon payments ($2,349 vs $1,191). Postoperative complications resulted…

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Editor's Note Overlapping surgical procedures are safe and provide the same outcomes for patients as non-overlapping procedures, this study finds. The analysis of 10,614 overlapping surgical procedures performed at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, found no difference in the rates of postoperative complications or deaths within a month after surgery,…

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Editor's Note Henry Ford Health System (Detroit, Michigan) is one of dozens of organizations that have dropped out of Medicare’s bundled payment model program in the past 3 years, the November 29 Modern Healthcare reports. In 2013, three of Henry Ford Health System hospitals participated in the first phase of…

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Editor's Note Surgical residents who perceived negative effects of The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education’s duty hour policies on patient safety were more likely to violate duty hour policies, this study finds. Of 4,554 residents in 184 programs analyzed: 25.3% felt the current duty hour policies negatively affected patient…

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Editor's Note In this study, a Risk Analysis Index was found to measure frailty in surgical patients with predictive ability equal to other frailty tools, with an additional advantage of rapid, real-time, preoperative assessment feasible for guiding surgical decision making. The Index measures frailty prospectively using a questionnaire or retrospectively…

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Editor's Note Intraoperative adverse events are independently associated with substantial increases in 30-day postoperative mortality, morbidity, and prolonged length of stay in abdominal surgery patients, this study finds. Postoperative complications associated with intraoperative adverse events included deep/organ-space surgical site infections, sepsis, pneumonia, and failure to wean from ventilator. Of 9,288…

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Editor's Note This study finds that general surgery residents strongly prefer work hour policies that allow them the flexibility to work longer hours when needed to provide patient care over the standard, more restrictive work schedules required by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. The preference for flexibility becomes…

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