Surgery
San Diego hospitals plan for surgery cancellations amid blood shortages
Editor's Note An ongoing blood shortage has San Diego County hospital officials looking at delaying and cancelling surgical procedures, the December 13 San Diego Union–Tribune reports. The blood supply for Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas is 25% to 50% below normal, and UC San Diego Health has been falling below their…
County-level social vulnerability linked to worse postop outcomes, especially in minority patients
Editor's Note This study from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and James Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbus, Ohio, finds that patients residing in vulnerable communities characterized by a high social vulnerability index (SVI) had worse postoperative outcomes, and the impact was most pronounced in Black/minority patients. In this analysis…
Change in volume of surgical procedures during COVID-19 pandemic
Editor's Note In this study, researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine find that the initial COVID-19 shutdown from March through April 2020 resulted in a decrease in surgical volume to nearly half of baseline rates. After the reopening, surgical volume rebounded to 2019 levels, and the trend was maintained.…
CMS releases final Medicare payment rule for ASCs, HOPDs
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), on November 2, released its 2022 final payment rule for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). The final rule increases Medicare prospective payment system rates by a net 2.0%—a combination of a 2.7% inflation update based on…
No association of COVID-19 with meeting time-to-surgery benchmarks for orthopedic trauma patients
Editor's Note This study, led by researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, New Hampshire, finds that despite the challenges associated with COVID-19, many US hospital systems were able to implement strategies in keeping with time-to-surgery standards for orthopedic trauma patients. Of 3,589 patients from 20 sites in the US and…
FDA: Class I recall of Cardiosave Hybrid/Rescue Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump battery packs
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on October 29, identified the recall by Datascope/Getinge/Maquet of its Cardiosave Hybrid/Rescue Intra-Aortic Balloon Pump battery packs as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of the risk of the battery failing and having a shortened run time, which…
Most appendicitis patients can have antibiotics as their first treatment
Editor's Note About half of patients with appendicitis do not need an appendectomy for up to 4 years after receiving antibiotics, finds this study presented October 25 at the American College of Surgeons virtual Clinical Congress 2021. The study was conducted at 25 US medical centers in 1,552 adults with…
Impact of WHO Surgical Safety Checklist relative to its design, intended use
Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, finds that the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist is positively impacting the things it was explicitly designed to address. The analysis included 36 articles and 20 systematic reviews. A thematic analysis revealed…
Changes in hospital-acquired conditions, mortality after HACRP
Editor's Note In this study, researchers from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, find that hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) targeted by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program (HACRP) declined after the program was announced, but 30-day mortality was unchanged. The analysis included 8,857,877 Medicare beneficiaries…
How might telehealth alter approaches to surgical patient care?
Telehealth services grew exponentially in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall telehealth utilization for office visits and outpatient care was 78 times higher in April 2020 than in February 2020, according to a McKinsey & Company July 2021 report. Since then, telehealth utilization has stabilized at levels that…
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