There is no shortage of advice, opinions, and proposed solutions when it comes to staff shortages, but the issue continues to plague healthcare systems nonetheless. For a couple of years now, speakers at the OR Business Management Conference and OR Manager Conference have been asking attendees, “Who still struggles to…

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Editor's Note COVID-19 can be considered endemic worldwide, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on the heels of reporting a drop in overall US death rates from the disease. CDC’s classification of the disease as endemic “means, essentially, that COVID is here to stay in predictable ways,”…

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Editor's Note Hospital performance declined this year compared to last, with more than 60% earning three stars or less in 2024 hospital star ratings from The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). “This decline might be partly due to the data covering the period from April 2019 to March…

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Editor's Note A recent study led by the University of Bristol reveals nearly 9 months of joint replacement surgeries, amounting to approximately 160,000 procedures, have been lost since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, News Medical Life Sciences July 31 reports. Published in The Bone & Joint Journal, the study…

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Editor's Note New findings highlight an urgent need to improve preventive measures against animal-borne diseases jumping to humans and potentially causing another global pandemic, US Today reported on July 21. The article details a study from  Harvard Law School and New York University that examined animal-human interactions in 15 countries,…

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Editor's Note A nearly 2-year drop in global life expectancy from 2019 to 2021 indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic effectively erased decade of progress, according to The World Health Organization’s 2024 World Health Statistics report. According to May 24 Healio report on WHO’s findings, global life expectancy dropped by 1.8…

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Editor's Note Due to its impact on a variety of organ systems, COVID-19 could elevate perioperative risks even among patients with mild symptoms, according to a study published in the February 2024 issue of Anesthesiology. Focused on patients presenting for elective inpatient surgery between April 2020 and April 2021, the…

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Editor's Note Many people have reportedly been experiencing cold-like symptoms this winter, which have often been attributed to “some bug”; however, there’s a strong chance these symptoms were due to a new surge of COVID-19, Wired January 10 reports. There’s a new, large global surge in daily COVID-19 infections currently…

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Editor’s Note Social distancing was more effective than closing borders in preventing the spread of COVID-19, according to a study published in Cell December 14. Conducted by Scripps Research, the study examined the efficacy of various mandates—including stay-at-home measures, social distancing, and travel restrictions— in preventing local and regional transmission…

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Editor's Note According to a new study, transcendental meditation significantly benefitted the mental health and well-being of frontline nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings were published in the Journal of Nursing Administration on December 11.  Transcendental Meditation, or TM, involves sitting with the eyes closed for 20 minutes to…

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