Editor's Note This study by researchers from the University of Texas Southwestern and Children’s Health, Dallas, finds that children with nonsevere COVID-19 had higher rates of respiratory complications during and after general anesthesia than controls, but severe morbidity was rare and there were no deaths. A total of 99 patients…

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Part 1 of this two-part series discussed the splashes and the potential for exposure to pathogens that personnel face daily in sterile processing and endoscopy departments, as well as the current guidelines and strategies for reducing exposures (OR Manager, July 2021, pp 1, 9-11, 15). These risks were derived from…

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Increased tensions during the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to a spate of violent incidents, many of them directed at healthcare workers (HCWs). About 20% of respondents to a National Nurses United survey in late 2020 of more than 15,000 US registered nurses reported an increase in on-the-job violence caused by…

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The Joint Commission on June 18 issued prepublication standards for its New and Revised Workplace Violence Prevention Requirements, which will apply to all Joint Commission-accredited hospitals starting January 1, 2022. Revisions range from some wording changes in existing requirements to the addition of new Elements of Performance (EP) within certain…

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This year, the American Hospital Association reports that hospitals could lose between $53 billion and $122 billion in revenue. Public health and the healthcare sector faced severe physical, mental, and financial stressors in 2020. Although some pandemic-driven burdens are finally easing, US hospitals are expected to face enormous fiscal losses…

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Cancellations of some surgical procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic and case rescheduling have been a major focus for perioperative leaders. But changes are also occurring in anesthesia practices. For many surgical procedures, the use of regional anesthesia or nerve blocks, coupled with light sedation, is reported to double if the…

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What exactly is required to prepare instruments for transport to the decontamination room after a surgical procedure? Point-of-use cleaning, which may also be referred to as precleaning, has been used to describe instrument preparation at the point of use after a surgical procedure. But both point-of-use cleaning and precleaning have…

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Editor's Note New provisional data released July 14 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that more than 93,331 people died from drug overdoes in the US last year. The nearly 30% rise from 2019 was mostly triggered by COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors, treatment inaccessibility, and proliferation of…

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Editor's Note In this study by researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is based on surveys conducted just before the expanded availability of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adolescents aged 12-15 years, about half of unvaccinated adolescents and their parents reported not intending for or being uncertain…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on July 9 updated its guidance for COVID-19 prevention in K-12 schools and urged schools to fully reopen in the fall even if they can’t comply with all the recommendations on physical distancing and mask-wearing. The agency says if maintaining…

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