Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on February 8, issued a new Quick Safety addressing safe, equitable care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Quick Safety focuses on actions organizations can take to: address racial and ethnic disparities remove barriers to providing safe, equitable healthcare. The pandemic has put a spotlight on…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine, Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone, New York City, finds that children in the New York City metropolitan region at the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak had higher rates of perforated appendicitis compared with historical controls. Researchers…

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Editor's Note This study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finds that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prevalence of current depression, increased or newly initiated substance use, and suicidal thoughts/ideation has been higher for some racial and ethnic minority groups, especially Hispanics. A survey of 1,004 US…

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Editor's Note Healthcare employment in the US was down in January to a seasonally adjusted 15,950,100 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on February 5. That’s down 29,600 jobs since December and down 510,100 jobs compared to a year ago. The overall unemployment rate is 6.3%.

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, finds that patients with dementia are at a significantly higher increased risk for COVID-19, and the risk is higher still for Blacks with dementia. Analyzing electronic health records of 61.9 million adults in the US, the…

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Editor's Note In a February 5 media briefing, the White House says it has invoked the Defense Production Act to help Pfizer produce more of its COVID-19 vaccine, and the same will hold true for Johnson & Johnson, should it receive Emergency Use Authorization for it’s vaccine, the February 5…

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Editor's Note The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a substantial decline in cardiac surgery volume and an unexplained increase in deaths after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), finds this study presented January 30 at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). Researchers from the University of California,…

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Editor's Note ECRI’s Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety and the Electronic Health Record Association, on February 8, released a white paper with five safe practice recommendations and strategies that focus on health IT’s role in screening, documenting, and sharing of information for patients with behavioral health needs. Studies in…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, finds that with increasing demands placed on frontline nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare systems should implement strategies to alleviate burnout, including adequate staffing and limiting the number of hours worked per shift. Of more than 3.9 million nurses…

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Editor's Note Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on February 3 that new COVID-19 cases in the US had fallen to pre-Thanksgiving levels, and the infection rates were continuing to decline, the February 3 The Hill reports. COVID-19 cases and hospital admissions appear…

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