Editor's Note The Joint Commission on October 29 announced that the deadline for onboarding to the Direct Data Submission (DDS) Platform for submission of CY 2019 electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) is December 20. Organizations that submitted CY 2018 eCQMs through the DDS Platform do not need to be onboarded…

Read More

Editor's Note An acute-care surgery model that caps surgeon call shifts at 12 hours instead of 24 hours for covering surgical emergencies has led to shorter hospital stays, lower infection rates, and lower overall costs for patients with acute appendicitis, finds this study presented October 30 at the American College…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on October 29 announced a new “Quick Safety 51: Proactive prevention of maternal death from maternal hemorrhage,” which provides background information on strategies outlined in a new maternal hemorrhage standard. The new Provision of Care, Treatment, and Services (PC) standard, "PC.06.01.01: Reduce the likelihood of…

Read More

Editor's Note Artificial intelligence (AI) in the form of a machine-learned algorithm correctly triaged the vast majority of postoperative patients to the ICU, in this pilot study presented October 29 at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2019 in San Francisco. The algorithm included 87 clinical variables and 15…

Read More

Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration on October 30 identified the recall by Ethicon of its Echelon Flex Endopath staplers as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of failure of the staplers to completely form staples. As of October 3, 2019, seven serious injuries and one…

Read More

Editor's Note The use of long-sleeved disposable OR jackets as recommended by AORN is not associated with reductions in surgical site infections (SSIs) and presents a fiscal burden, this study finds. In this analysis of 60,009 patients in 12 hospitals in a large multicenter health organization during a 55 month…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study, machine learning algorithms accurately identified cancer patients who were at risk of 6-month mortality. Of 26,525 cancer patients analyzed, machine learning models based on structured electronic health record data accurately predicted short-term mortality risk with good discrimination and positive predictive value. When the gradient boosting…

Read More

Editor's Note An Enhanced Recovery Pathway (ERP) created by the Mayo Clinic’s colorectal surgery service a decade ago has now been adopted by other surgical services in seven medical centers that are members of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, the October 15 Harvard Business Review reports. The ability of each…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on October 23 that laminated posters and badge buddies on the 2020 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) for hospitals are now available for purchase. Areas covered by the NPSGs include: Patient identification Infection prevention Patient safety risks Safe surgery. The posters and badge buddies…

Read More

Editor's Note The Joint Commission on October 23 announced that a new Dashboard Report is now available for accredited ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). The report provides performance measurement data on select measures and is intended to facilitate conversations on data, performance measures, and quality improvement during the survey process. Using…

Read More