Editor's Note The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) and Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (APSF) issued a joint statement December 8 on performing elective surgery and anesthesia on COVID-19 patients who have recovered from the virus. The statement notes that: In general, all non-urgent procedures should be delayed until the patient…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on December 2 released its 2021 final payment rule for ASCs and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). CMS has finalized the addition of 11 procedures to the ASC covered procedures list, including total hip arthroplasty, autochondrocyte knee implant, and open complex…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on December 1 released its 2021 final rule for the Medicare physician fee schedule (PFS), which expands telehealth services and increases payments for primary care and chronic disease management. The rule also reduces payments for surgeons, emergency physicians, and other…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, New York City, finds that patients having elective surgery make up a small fraction of ICU bed and mechanical ventilation use in New York State. The researchers reviewed 5 years of New York State data…

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Editor's Note In response to an increase in hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 66 hospitals have postponed or cancelled elective surgical procedures in an effort to free up space and ensure enough staff and PPE are available, the November 24 Becker’s Hospital Review reports. All of the hospitals are in the Midwest…

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Release of the National Academy of Medicine’s (NAM) report, Future of Nursing 2020-2030, has been delayed until spring 2021. The report is expected to address “newly emerging evidence related to the COVID-19 global pandemic and include recommendations regarding the role of nurses in responding to the crisis,” according to the…

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Streaming music apps and access to music through smartphones and similar devices make it easy to provide many different genres of music and modalities that can ease surgical patients’ fears. The use of music in both pre- and postoperative settings has been extensively researched, but less is known about how…

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For the first time in its history, the annual OR Manager Conference was held virtually September 30 to October 2. Many things were different this year, but the robust educational content and advanced technology were the same as in previous years. In a post-conference survey, more than 60% of respondents…

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New recommendations developed from evidence-based research have been added to AORN’s Guideline for Care and Cleaning of Surgical Instruments. Several of these changes will have an impact on the quality of processing in sterile processing (SP) areas. This latest version, released on October 12, 2020, includes industry changes that have…

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Wasted room capacity is a major problem in hospital surgery departments. In most facilities, OR utilization hovers around 60%. Practically speaking, that means between one-quarter and one-third of expensive OR time is going to waste. Inefficiency at this scale is clearly a financial problem. As hospitals struggle to absorb volume…

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