Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention on March 17 updated its strategies for optimizing personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies, including facemasks. The strategies are based on surge capacity and include: *Conventional capacity: Patient care is provided without any change in daily practices. Use facemasks according to product…

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Editor's Note This commentary by Andrea Cruz, MD, MPH, pediatric emergency medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and Steven Zeichner, MD, PhD, head of pediatric infectious diseases University of Virginia Health, Charlottesville, who are associate editors for Pediatrics, notes that it is crucial to understand how the COVID-19 virus affects…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) on March 13 updated its recommendations for the management of elective surgical procedures during the COVID-19 outbreak. Among the recommendations: Each hospital, healthcare system, and surgeon should: review all scheduled elective procedures with a plan to minimize, postpone, or cancel elective operations,…

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Hospitals have long dominated the realms of infection control and antibiotic overuse. Ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), which typically release patients the same day of a procedure, use antibiotics less frequently than other facilities, and most do not have an antimicrobial stewardship program. However, some ASC leaders and organizations are encouraging…

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Editor's Note The American College of Radiology (ACR) on March 11 issued a recommendation that CT scans not be used as a first-line screening test to diagnose COVID-19, the March 11 AuntMinnie.com reports. Though early reports from China indicated that CT could detect COVID-19, even when DNA tests were negative,…

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Editor's Note This retrospective, multicenter study from four hospitals in Wuhan, China, found that Novel Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) specific guidelines for emergency surgical procedures in patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infection can effectively prevent cross-infection in the OR. The guidelines include: negative pressure ORs level 3 protective measures for…

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Editor's Note In a March 4 press release, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) called on all healthcare providers to make sure they are implementing infection control practices, which they are required to maintain at all times, in an effort to limit the spread of the Novel Coronavirus…

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In October 2019, AORN released its updated Guideline for Sterilization Packaging, which is based on evidence from peer-reviewed literature. This article includes recommendations from that guideline and addresses common misconceptions about sterilization packaging. Other resources for proper use of sterilization packaging include the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation…

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Editor's Note AORN on February 14 released a new coronavirus (COVID-19) tool kit to support OR decision-making for the safety of healthcare workers and patients. The toolkit includes: World Health Organization updates Centers for Disease Control & Prevention updates ECRI Institute-Coronavirus Outbreak Preparedness Center resources Journal of the American Medical…

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Editor's Note: The Joint Commission announced on December 4 that it will soon unveil a new website design with a single sign-on for multiple sites, including Joint Commission Connect, Targeted Solutions tool, and the Joint Commission Resources webstore. When the new website launches, users will be prompted to reset their…

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