Editor's Note The American Hospital Association on June 30 released a report on the financial strain facing hospitals and health systems because of COVID-19, with total losses expected to be at least $323 billion in 2020. The total included $120.5 billion in financial losses that hospitals are predicted to see…

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Editor's Note COVID-19 is associated with substantial alterations in the platelet transcriptome and proteome, and greater platelet hyper-reactivity, this study finds. Researchers examined 41 hospitalized COVID-19 patients at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City. Of these, 17 were in the ICU and nine were on ventilators. Blood…

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Editor's Note The June 29 AuntMinnie reports on a panel presentation at the virtual annual meeting of the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine that found the adoption of point-of-care ultrasound by nonradiologists may be accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the American College of Radiology recommended not using CT…

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Editor's Note Surgical mortality and complications were higher in patients with COVID-19, compared with those without COVID-19, this Italian study finds. In this cohort study of 41 surgical patients with COVID-19 and 82 matched control patients without COVID-19: 30-day mortality was significantly higher in COVID-19 patients (19.51% of COVID-19 patients…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on June 26 posted key updates for week 25, of the COVID-19 epidemic, ending June 20. The percentage of US deaths attributed to flu, pneumonia, or COVID-19 decreased for the ninth consecutive week to 6.9%, from 9.5% a week earlier.…

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Editor's Note Harvard Medical School researchers are projecting that primary care practices will lose more than $15 billion by the end of the year. Because of the steep decline in office visits and fee for service payments from March to May, primary care practices are expected to lose more than…

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Editor's Note Transmission of COVID-19 during and after a college spring break trip to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, (March 14-19) by University of Texas at Austin students led to 64 cases, including 60 of 183 travelers, 1 of 13 household contacts, and 3 of 35 community contacts, according to the…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on June 22 called for a renewed commitment to value-based care based on Medicare claims data that provides an early snapshot of the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Medicare population. Medicare patient data, from January 1 to May…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers from five universities confirm that a persistent cough and fever are the most prevalent symptoms of adults infected with COVID-19. However, there is a large proportion of people who have the virus but do not display symptoms. Among the findings of this analysis of…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced June 24 that it has revised its position statement on preventing nosocomial COVID-19 infections as healthcare organizations resume regular care delivery. The Joint Commission supports the following positions: Continuing to follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations for universal masking of staff, patients,…

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