Tag: Occupational Hazards

Joint Commission issues new Heads-Up Report on challenges presented by COVID-19

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on October 21 issued a new Heads-Up Report on challenges that accredited organizations are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Report topics include: Hospital and critical access hospital emergency privileges Ambulatory healthcare competency assessments Behavioral healthcare identification of environmental risks for suicide Laboratory record keeping for…

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By: Judy Mathias
October 22, 2020
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Impact of COVID-19 on HAIs

Editor's Note To provide flexibility to healthcare workers responding to the COVID-19 crisis, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) waived reporting requirements for healthcare associated infections (HAIs) through June 2020. Using the experience of hospitals in New York City and St Louis, Missouri, the authors provide commentary on…

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By: Judy Mathias
October 21, 2020
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Faulty bronchoscope reprocessing raises risks of infection transmission

Preventing infection transmission has been a chief concern of healthcare leaders and staff striving to protect their patients and themselves from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The virus poses an insidious threat that includes the possibility of bronchoscopy-associated transmission of COVID-19. Long before the pandemic, epidemiologist and researcher Cori…

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By: Judith M. Mathias, MA, RN
October 21, 2020
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Editorial

Surveys this past year seem to have proliferated, many of them related to the COVID-19 pandemic. What has worked? What hasn’t? What are the next steps? Resuming surgical procedures after the springtime hiatus has helped regain some lost ground. Even as cases of the virus surged in many parts of…

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By: Elizabeth Wood
October 21, 2020
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Think 'outside the blocks' to shore up balance sheets

Editor’s Note: This article from Whitman Partners addresses some ways OR nurse leaders can help their health systems recover from the financial fallout and disruption in normal processes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Whitman Partners is a Portland, Oregon-based specialty search firm dedicated to placing directors of surgical services at…

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By: Carisa Brewster
October 21, 2020
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Survey: COVID-19 is a worry, but compensation remains stable

The COVID-19 pandemic is top of mind for ambulatory surgery center (ASC) leaders, finds the OR Manager 2020 Salary/Career Survey. Most of the 69 ASC leaders who completed the survey responded to an open-ended question about how the pandemic had affected their facility and staff, with the most frequent comments…

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By: Cynthia Saver, MS, RN
October 21, 2020
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Deaths reported during the pandemic far exceed those from COVID-19

Editor's Note For every two deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the US between March and July, a third person died as a result of the pandemic, finds this study from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, Richmond. COVID-19 was cited in 65% of excess deaths (the gap between observed…

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By: Judy Mathias
October 20, 2020
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Hospital executives worried about financial viability without vaccine

Editor's Note A Kaufman Hall survey released October 19 finds that nearly 75% of hospital executives are “extremely” or “moderately” worried about their organizations’ financial viability without a COVID-19 vaccine. One third say year-over-year operating margins dropped more than 100% in the second quarter. The only specialty area that a…

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By: Judy Mathias
October 20, 2020
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ACS: Effect of COVID-19 on surgical experience of residents, early-career surgeons

Editor's Note An American College of Surgeons survey finds a significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical residents and early-career surgeons. Of 1,160 respondents (465 residents, 695 early-career surgeons), 96% reported the pandemic had a negative effect on their clinical experience. About one third reported inadequate access to personal…

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By: Judy Mathias
October 19, 2020
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FDA reissues EUA for N95 respirators manufactured in China

Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on October 15 announced that it reissued the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for certain N95 and other filtering face-piece respirators that are manufactured in China and are not approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety…

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By: Judy Mathias
October 19, 2020
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