Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 23 announced that it is seeking feedback on proposed requirements for its Advanced Certification in Spine Surgery. In collaboration with the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Joint Commission developed the proposed spine surgery related requirements to include: program structure delivery of care…

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Nearly a third (30%) of ambulatory surgery center (ASC) leaders have experienced layoffs of direct care staff during the past year, according to the 2020 annual OR Manager Salary/Career Survey, up from a mere 4% in 2019. COVID-19 is the likely culprit: Most of the comments received in response to…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on August 12 released its sentinel event statistics for the first half of 2020. From January 1 through June 30, the Joint Commission reviewed 437 sentinel events. The most frequently reported events were in the following categories: Care management, 165 Surgical or invasive procedures, 131…

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Editor's Note US News & World Report on July 28 released its 2019-2020 Best Hospitals Honor Roll. The top five are: Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota Cleveland Clinic Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore New York-Presbyterian Hospital-Columbia and Cornell, New York City, and UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles (tie) Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston…

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Staffing to a block duration can be inefficient. Uncontrolled variables such as increased case complexity and unexpected staff absences can cause chaos. Leaders from Penn Medicine—Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia used data analytics to measure the efficiency of matching staffing against an optimized OR schedule, which allowed them to predict staffing…

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Strategies that can achieve the aims of excellence in clinical care, fewer complications, and reduced costs are sorely needed, and the comprehensive implementation of an Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) program can help achieve these aims in the surgical population. ERAS pathways have been found to reduce morbidity, hospital stay,…

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On January 1, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began reimbursing healthcare providers for total hip arthroplasty performed in outpatient hospital settings and total knee arthroplasty in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), thereby opening the floodgates for explosive growth in outpatient total joint arthroplasty (TJA). About a million…

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Editor's Note On May 12, California's Governor Gavin Newsom announced that California pharmacists will be allowed to collect specimens and order COVID-19 tests. Specimens will be are processed at public health, university, or commercial labs. The move is an effort to increase the state’s testing capacity as it modifies its…

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Editor's Note In this study, Elizabeth Wick, MD, and colleagues at the University of California at San Francisco develop a surgery-triage plan to reduce OR volume and manage healthcare resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their comprehensive rapid response plan included: Reducing OR volume by 80% to ensure adequate capacity to…

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Editor's Note Specialists like cardiac and orthopedic surgical teams as well as anesthesiologists and cardiologists are being redeployed in hospitals to help treat the rising number of COVID-19 patients, the March 30 Modern Healthcare reports. What used to be the heart team at Manhattan’s Mount Sinai Morningside is now a…

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