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…

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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…

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Editor's Note New research from the ECRI Institute finds that diagnostic tests and medication events are the most frequent safety risks patients face in ambulatory care. ECRI Institute’s “Deep Dive: Safe Ambulatory Care, Strategies for Patient Safety & Risk Reduction” identifies solutions for five types of safety challenges in ambulatory…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on October 18 released an update to its “Guideline for infection control in healthcare personnel, 1998.” The updated document, “Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel: Infrastructure and Routine Practices for Occupational Infection Prevention and Control Services (2019),” applies to a broader range…

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The US has been on a journey for the last several years to reduce the cost of healthcare. In 2017, the percent of gross domestic product attributed to healthcare goods and services was at 17.9%. This is expected to reach as much as 19.4% by the year 2027.1 Factors contributing…

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Editor's Note This study found that opioid prescribing can be decreased by more than 50% and not adversely affect patients’ satisfaction scores with their surgeons. Of 996 patients surveyed on their satisfaction with their surgeons before (period A) and after (period B) an educational intervention that resulted in decreased opioid…

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Editor's Note In this study, heart failure with or without symptoms was associated with an increased risk of postoperative mortality at 90-days and complications at 30-days in ambulatory surgery patients. In this analysis of 355,121 patients having noncardiac ambulatory surgical procedures, 90-day mortality was 2% in patients with heart failure…

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Editor's Note Using machine learning on electronic health record (EHR) postoperative data linked to the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) outcomes data, researchers developed a model with 163 predictors of postoperative complications at the University of Colorado Hospital. Of 6,840 patients analyzed with the…

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Editor's Note The ECRI Institute on October 7 released its annual safety report identifying the top 10 device hazards in hospitals, medical practices, and homecare for 2020. Topping the list was surgical stapler misuse and malfunction that can lead to patient harm. Third on the list is sterile processing errors…

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Editor's Note This study from researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found a consistent, strong association between geographic indicators for socioeconomic status and important surgical outcomes. Of 1,573,740 hospital discharges analyzed, adjusted odds of inpatient mortality significantly increased as geographic distress increased across all measures of geographic risk. The odds of…

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