Led by the National Patient Safety Foundation, the event has been held for the past 15 years. Putting patient safety in the limelight once a year is fine, but for healthcare providers, patient safety awareness needs to be a daily priority. To reinforce that notion, the Joint Commission on March…

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Most OR leaders believe the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist can help prevent surgical errors and complications. But although many hospitals have formally adopted the WHO checklist, fewer ORs use it consistently. At Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, a nonprofit teaching facility south of Boston, we addressed this issue…

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Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia, South Carolina, has had an annual average 3% growth in surgical volume since 2011 and is planning to add six ORs over the next 3 years. That’s a good position to be in. However, the ability of the organization to support continued surgical growth…

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Editor's Note Bariatric surgery performed before hip or knee replacement can reduce in-hospital and 90-day postoperative complications, finds this study presented March 14 at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons annual meeting in San Diego. Compared with morbidly obese patients who did not have bariatric surgery before joint replacement, those…

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Editor's Note There were about 3.1 million fewer hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) between 2010 and 2015, according to a newly released report from the Agency for healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Most of the decline was because of a: 42% reduction in adverse drug events 23% drop in pressure ulcers 15%…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 14 categorized the recall by Medtronic (Minneapolis) of its SynchroMed II and SynchroMed EL implantable drug infusion pumps as Class I, the most serious. The pumps are being recalled because a software problem may cause unintended delivery of drugs during…

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Editor's Note Lumbar spinal fusion performed within 3 months after lumbar epidural steroid injections was associated with a statistically significant increase in postoperative infections in this study. The association was not found when surgery was performed more than 3 months after steroid injections. Of 88,540 patients analyzed, infection rates were:…

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Editor's Note The use of inpatient rehabilitation compared with a monitored home-based program did not improve mobility at 26 weeks after total knee surgery, this study finds. In the study, 81 patients received 10 days of hospital inpatient rehabilitation followed by an 8-week home-based program, and 87 patients received only…

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Editor's Note The ECRI Institute on March 13 released its 2017 Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for Healthcare Organizations. This year’s list includes: Information management in electronic health records Unrecognized patient deterioration Implementation and use of clinical decision support Test result reporting and follow-up Antimicrobial stewardship Patient identification Opioid administration…

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Editor's Note The Coalition for Quality in Geriatric Surgery (CQGS) developed high-quality, valid standards to improve surgical care in the older adult, this study finds. A total of 306 of 308 standards developed were rated as valid to improve quality of geriatric surgery, 290 were rated as feasible, and 18…

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