Editor's Note Patients at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver may be at risk for HIV or hepatitis after the hospital discovered a surgical instrument sterilization breach, the April 5 LiveScience reports. The process for precleaning surgical instruments was found to be inadequate, which may have put patients who had orthopedic…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on April 4 that it is no longer scoring two elements of performance (EPs), effective March 9, that were removed from the Medication Compounding chapter in the Home Care Accreditation program standards manual and the Compounding Sterile and Nonsterile Preparations chapter in the Medication…

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Editor's Note Black and white disparities in hospital readmission rates narrowed after the introduction of Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program that penalizes higher than expected readmissions; however, black and white gaps still persist and minority serving hospitals continued to be penalized more by the program, this study finds. During the…

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Editor's Note At First Hill Surgery Center in Seattle, patients can have a knee or hip replaced in the morning and go home in the afternoon, the April Seattle Magazine reports. The surgical procedure takes about 2 hours, and patients admitted at 7:30 am generally are able to return home…

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Editor's Note Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) can be performed on an outpatient basis with comparable morbidity, readmission rates, and lower costs as on an inpatient basis, finds this study. In this analysis of 3,135 outpatient and 46,966 inpatient ACDFs, the mean Charlson comorbidity index, length of stay, and…

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Editor's Note Movement in the OR is associated with microbial load, this study finds. Researchers determined areas in the OR with high and low numbers of people in transit and placed air samplers and settle plates in representative locations during 21 surgical procedures, in four ORs, during two seasons of…

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Editor's Note Frailty is an important risk factor for postoperative complications and failure to rescue, after both low-risk and high-risk surgical procedures, this study finds. In this study of 984,550 patients in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program, there was a dose-response association between increasing patient…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 21 announced that the first hospital to earn its Thrombectomy-Capable Stroke Center (TSC) certification is St Joseph Mercy Oakland, Pontiac, Michigan, a member of Saint Joseph Mercy Health System. In collaboration with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA), the TSC certification signifies…

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Editor's Note In this study from the UK, researchers found a robust relationship between a surgeon’s daily OR schedule and surgical performance (indexed by duration of procedure). The researchers say surgeons should reorder their OR schedule, starting their days with the simpler cases and building up to the more difficult…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 20 announced the deletion of RI.01.01.01, element of performance (EP) 8: “The hospital respects the patient’s right to pain management” because it is no longer relevant and necessary to ensure quality of care and safety. The deletion is effective immediately. The Joint Commission’s…

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