Editor's Note As of Monday, June 22, 150,424,675 Americans had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (45.3% of the population), and 177,635,067 had received at least one dose (53.5% of the population), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports. This tally includes two doses of the Moderna or Pfizer…

Read More

Editor's Note This systematic review, meta-analysis, and trial sequential analysis by UK researchers find that the FDA-approved, anti-parasitic drug ivermectin could reduce COVID-19 related deaths and infections. The data showed: The use of ivermectin to treat patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 reduced risk of death by an average of 62%. The…

Read More

Editor's Note The American Medical Association (AMA) has released a new survey of 301 US practicing physicians that shows 96% have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Of those not yet vaccinated, 45% plan to do so. Vaccination rates did not differ across: primary care physicians (98%) or specialists (95%) regions—North…

Read More

Does it really matter if surgical instruments are submerged in cleaning solution when technologists or nurses scrub them after a case? Is there a reason for the 3-foot separation between dirty and clean areas? Do germs stop at the red line? During the COVID-19 pandemic, much attention has been focused…

Read More

Many ingredients go into the recipe for patient safety, and culture is one ingredient that is often overlooked. If the perioperative culture penalizes those who call out patient safety issues and doesn’t commit to continuous quality improvement (QI), it’s likely only a matter of time before a serious error occurs.…

Read More

Communication is an underlying theme in several articles in this issue. We examine the concept from many different angles, but a common thread is its impact on safety—for patients and providers alike. In the COVID-19 era, safety has been a chief driver of decision making. Early in 2020, elective surgical…

Read More

The pandemic has called on leaders to inspire their teams to achieve greatness both during a crisis and afterward. The annual OR Manager Conference will bring Cy Wakeman, MS, CSP, to the stage to help attendees find ways to turn adversity into opportunity. Wakeman, president and founder of Reality-Based Leadership,…

Read More

Editor's Note This study by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, finds that healthcare worker (HCW) reported COVID-19 symptoms can be used to estimate hospital demand in the communities where they live. This analysis includes 6,481 HCWs who worked at 1 hospital and lived within a 10-hospital service…

Read More

Editor's Note This study from the VA Boston Healthcare System finds an association between receipt of Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine and a reduction in COVID-19 infections in healthcare workers (HCWs) beginning 8 days after the first dose. In this analysis of 4,028 HCWs, 3,367 were vaccinated during the study period. Of…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study, researchers from the University of California, San Diego, developed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to identify signature genes that forecast the severity of a viral infection immune response including that of COVID-19. The researchers analyzed more than 45,000 datasets from viral pandemics in humans, mice,…

Read More