Penicillin allergy linked to SSI risk
Editor's Note In this study from the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, patients with penicillin allergies had a 50% increased odds of developing surgical site infections (SSIs), which the researchers attributed to the second-line antibiotics administered to them. A total of 8,385 patients who had surgery between 2010 and 2014…
ACS NSQIP recognizes 66 hospitals for meritorious outcomes
Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) on October 18 recognized 66 of 680 hospitals participating in the adult program for achieving meritorious outcomes for surgical patient care in 2016. ACS NSQIP hospitals are required to track outcomes for inpatient and outpatient…
CMUNRO SCALE created to facilitate risk assessment for pressure injuries
In 2016, after 10 years of research and validation, Cassendra Munro’s Pressure Ulcer Risk Assessment Scale for Perioperative Patients (Munro Scale) was made available for use in the perioperative setting and was added to the AORN Prevention of Pressure Ulcers Tool Kit. The Munro Scale assesses a patient’s risk level…
Improved communication tools put PACU visitors at ease
About 8 years ago, Maine Medical Center (MMC) in Portland had a policy that required visitors to wait in the surgery waiting room at least 3 hours before being allowed to visit their loved ones. The postanesthesia care unit (PACU) nurse was not expected to communicate with the family while…
Walk the talk: Words matter when it comes to patient safety
Every week Ann Shimek, MSN, BSN, RN, CASC, hits the road to communicate about communicating. Shimek is senior vice president of clinical operations at United Surgical Partners International (USPI) in Addison, Texas. She and her team of six clinical nurses travel among USPI’s 21 hospitals and 260 ambulatory surgery centers…
ACS NSQIP pilot identifies geriatric–specific risk factors that affect surgical outcomes
Editor's Note A new pilot study from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) finds that adding geriatric-specific risk factors to traditional risk factors could significantly improve the ability of surgeons to predict poor surgical outcomes in older patients. The study involved 36,399 older surgical…
Frailty linked to increased morbidity after ambulatory general surgery
Editor's Note Frailty was associated with postoperative morbidity in patients having ambulatory general surgery procedures, independent of age, type of anesthesia, and other comorbidities, this study finds. In this study of 140,828 patients older than 40 years of age, frailty was associated with increased adjusted odds of 30-day morbidity after…
Low-cost, high-volume services account for most of unnecessary healthcare spending
Editor's Note Low-cost, high-volume healthcare services account for a high percentage of unnecessary spending, adding strain to the healthcare system, this study finds. In this analysis of 5.5 million patients in Virginia, researchers found that services providing no net health benefits cost the state’s healthcare system more than $586 million…
New app helps protect patients’ brains during surgery
Editor's Note A new app developed by students at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s (UWM’s) App Brewery and a neuropsychologist at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) monitors critical brain functions during neurosurgical procedures in which patients are awake. The app, called “NeruoMapper,” assists neurosurgeons who are removing tumors by helping…
Comparison of internal medicine, general surgery residents’ postop risk assessments
Editor's Note Risk assessments of postoperative complications and death in surgically complex patients were not significantly different between internal medicine and general surgery residents in this study. However, both groups overestimated the risks compared with the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS NSQIP) risk adjusted model.…
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