Editor's Note Healthcare employment in the US was down in February to a seasonally adjusted 15,914,500 workers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on March 5. That’s down 19,900 jobs since January and down 577,600 jobs compared to a year ago. The overall unemployment rate is 6.2%.

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Editor's Note This multi-center study finds that critical vitreoretinal surgical procedures deemed as urgent or emergency decreased nationwide from March until May 2020, even though the American Academy of Ophthalmology said these procedures should continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from 17 institutions throughout the US. Compared to…

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Editor's Note An electronic medical record (EMR) data analysis by Epic Health Research Network for the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that from March through December 2020, hospital admissions were 8.5% below predictions because of COVID-19. The analysis, which is based on Epic’s EMR data on all inpatient admissions from December…

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Editor's Note ECRI’s Partnership for Health IT Patient Safety, a collaborative of national health IT safety experts, has released a new guidance to improve patient safety by reducing the number of alert notifications from computerized ordering systems. Their just-released white paper, “Safe Practices to Reduce CPOE [computerized provider order entry]…

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The end of the COVID-19 pandemic is in sight, but hospital surgery departments will not likely see a rapid return to normal. Since the start of the pandemic, perioperative leaders have had to stay flexible and act quickly. Over the next 12 months, OR leaders will need to reassess the…

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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 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 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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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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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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