Editor's Note According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the 7-day average of daily hospitalizations caused by COVID-19 infection is up nearly 24% over the previous month, the American Hospital Association (AHA) June 6 reports. In addition, the CDC reported “nearly 30,000 hospitalizations” due to…

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Editor's Note According to a study analyzing national death certificate data by researchers at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the US between March 2020 and October 2021, Healthcare Purchasing News (HPN) July 6 reports. During…

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Editor's Note In this presentation, Lynn Webb, PhD, assistant dean for faculty development and assistant professor of Medical Education and Administration at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, made a compelling argument for how unprofessional behavior on the part of clinical staff—including OR personnel—has a direct impact on the financial performance of…

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Editor's Note This study from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York City, finds that Medicare’s Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement (CJR) program led to a reduction of racial differences in hospital readmission rates for patients having hip or knee replacement surgery. The retrospective cohort study included…

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Editor's Note Machine learning (ML) models designed by surgeons at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston show a high level of accuracy in predicting which types of patients are most likely to have a hernia recurrence or other complications after surgery in this study. Of 725…

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Editor's Note Data from the National Center for Health Statistics shows a 0.4% decline in cesarean and induced deliveries for preterm births during the COVID-10 pandemic lockdown, between March and December 2020, according to researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. The researchers also noted other birth trends, including…

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Editor's Note Overall healthcare employment in the US was up in March to a seasonally adjusted 16,192,400 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on April 1. That’s up 8,300 since February. Hospital employment also was up by 5,100 jobs. The overall unemployment rate for March was 3.6%, for a…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on March 30, announced that it had contracted with Dynamic Health IT to help develop a new Direct Data Submission Platform (DDSP) and electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) engine. The DDSP will facilitate submission of quality measurement data directly to The Joint Commission from approximately…

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Editor's Note According to ASC Focus, the Ambulatory Surgery Center Association journal, new research was recently published that supports older data pointing to the cost savings of orthopedic procedures being done in ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) compared to hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). Past research cited by ASC Focus included an…

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Editor's Note OR Manager recently reported on the increased cybersecurity risk the Russia/Ukraine conflict poses to US healthcare systems. With two new malware threats identified last week, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI are urging US organizations and the private sector, including healthcare, to stay vigilant and…

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