Editor's Note Research shows that Americans who live in areas with a limited number of primary care doctors and nurse practitioners are at a greater risk for emergency surgeries and complications. The findings were published March 4 in the journal Health Affairs.  For the study, researchers looked at Medicare patient…

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Editor's Note Researchers at Imperial College London are using noninvasive brain monitoring to understand the stressors contributing to cognitive overload in surgeons as well as how to combat the condition. The Guardian reported the news on March 2. The monitoring technique, called functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), measures neural activity in…

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Editor's Note The recent cyberattack on Change Healthcare created a financial impact for the lion’s share of US hospitals surveyed recently by the American Hospital Association, with more than half reporting “significant or serious” impact and three of every four also reporting direct impacts on patient care. These data reflect…

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Editor's Note Researchers at MIT have developed a new gel called GastroShield to help prevent gastrointestinal bleeding during and after surgery performed during colonoscopy screenings. Advanced Materials published the findings on February 29.  Colonoscopy screenings—undergone by some 20 million Americans each year—often result in doctors finding and removing polyps. These…

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Editor's Note A study published March 8 in the journal Health Policy finds that nurses’ intention to leave the profession has a significant association with patient mortality.   Researchers looked at data from approximately 37,000 patients aged 50 and older admitted to 15 public hospitals in Italy in 2015 for…

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Editor's Note A study from the Joint Commission found that more than 25 percent of hospitals have not adopted any of the four policies identified by the organization as best-practice, evidence-based discharge practices for preventing suicide in at-risk patients.   According to a March 12 report on the implementation gap…

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Editor's Note A patient undergoing emergency neurosurgery at Northwestern Medicine became the first to benefit from a neurosurgical drill designed to eliminate the need for hand-crank operation. According to a March 5 report from Northwestern, the procedure occurred in October at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, “when Northwestern Medicine neurosurgeon Matthew Potts, MD used…

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Editor's Note Making good on plans announced by the Biden administration in December, federal agencies have launched a public inquiry into how private equity mergers and acquisitions impact patient outcomes, worker safety, and healthcare access and costs, including costs to taxpayers.  As reported by Dotmed Healthcare Business News on March…

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Editor's Note US News & World Report, recognized globally as an authority in healthcare rankings and consumer advice, announced in November 2023 the addition of Best Ambulatory Surgery Centers to its annual series of ratings that evaluate healthcare sites. This new category comes in response to the growing prevalence of…

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Editor's Note In a March 9 Press release, CMS announced it will offer emergency funding for healthcare providers experiencing continued disruptions in the wake of a February 21 cyberattack on Change Healthcare, a subsidiary of UnitedHealthGroup and a major processor of medical claims. According to the release, CMS will extend…

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