Editor's Note Center accreditation alone does not ensure high-quality care for bariatric surgical patients, this study finds. In this analysis of 145,527 patients across 165 bariatric centers of excellence, serious complication rates varied 17-fold at the national level and 2.1-fold at the state level. Complication rates varied at centers with…

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Editor's Note Air particle counts (APCs) in the OR increase in relation to traffic and door openings, this study finds. Over 1 week, researchers recorded APCs in 5-minute intervals and movement of healthcare workers in the OR. Trained observers recorded information about traffic, door openings, job title of the opener,…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 27 issued a Safety Alert saying the agency had approved label changes on the use of general anesthetic and sedation drugs in children younger than 3 years. The changes include: A new warning that exposure to these drugs for lengthy…

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Editor's Note Contrary to claims that overlapping surgeries are dangerous or harmful to patients, they were not found to be associated with worse patient outcomes in this study presented April 25 at the 2017 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting in Los Angeles. The analysis included 14,872 neurosurgical…

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Editor's Note A survey by SERMO (a global social network for physicians) of 3,086 physicians from 26 countries found that 46% have witnessed an EHR malfunction or outage that endangered a patient’s health or safety, according to the April 24 Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review. A total of 55%…

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Editor's Note In this study, the use of preoperative and postoperative elements of a Perioperative Surgical Home model in total knee and hip patients was associated with improvements in operational outcomes. The study included 1,225 patients in a preintervention PSH group and 1,363 in a postintervention PSH group. Compared with…

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Editor's Note A new trend in US healthcare, known as “micro-hospitals,” offers care in underserved communities and provides an alternative to emergency care at major hospitals, according to the April 24 US News & World Reports. Micro-hospitals, already built in 19 states, have an average of 8 to 10 short-stay…

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Editor's Note A survey of public perceptions of overlapping surgery found that only a small minority of the general public is aware of the practice. Of 1,454 respondents, 56 (3.9%) were aware of overlapping surgery, and 440 (31%) supported or strongly supported the practice. The majority believed attending surgeons should…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 24 announced the recall by Hospira (Lake Forest, Illinois) of one lot of 25% Dextrose Injection, USP, (infant) prefilled syringes because of the presence of particulate matter identified as human hair. The affected lot is NDC: 0409-1775-10, Lot 58382EV, Expiry…

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Editor's Note In this study, data show that Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals have a similar or more favorable quality compared with non-VA hospitals. Data for 129 VA and 4,010 non-VA hospitals were evaluated on 17 outcome measures (9 Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators [PSIs], 4 mortality…

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