Editor's Note Though the processes of care for emergency coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery were altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, patient mortality did not change for COVID-19-negative patients; however, COVID-19 positive patients did have significantly higher mortality as well as infectious complications, finds this study presented May 6 at…

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Editor's Note The Leapfrog Group, on May 3, announced that its new Hospital Safety Grade shows a significant increase in healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, spiking to a 5-year high and remaining high. Their analysis found that the average: Central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) ratio increased 60% Methicillin-resistant…

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Editor's Note The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) announced May 1 that it has created a series of ‘Playbooks’ to help infection preventionists (IPs) and epidemiologists operationalize prevention efforts to help fight emerging infectious diseases. The pathogen-specific playbooks outline recommended practices for outbreak response, including: Pathogen…

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Editor's Note This study led by nurse researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, finds that rest break practices of 12-hour shift nurses are of poor quality. Survey data from 806 nurses were analyzed. Key findings include: Most nurses did not take regular rest breaks. Breaks were often interrupted, spent…

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Editor's Note This meta-analysis by researchers from Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran; Harvard Medical School, Boston; and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, finds a greater risk for Bell's palsy with COVID-19 infection, compared with COVID-19 vaccination. A total of 50 studies were included in the analysis with…

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Editor's Note This study, published in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, analyzes 68 closed claims cases on wrong-site surgery from 2013 to 2020. The services most frequently responsible for these cases were: Orthopedics (35.3%) Neurosurgery (22.1%) Urology (8.8%). The most common types of procedures involving wrong-site…

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Editor's Note The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC), on April 10, announced the release of updated standards for its 3-year Advanced Orthopaedic Certification program, which will take effect July 1, 2023. The updated Certification Handbook for Advanced Orthopaedics, v42, introduces new terminology and standards architecture plus a revised…

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Editor's Note New research from the American College of Surgeons and American Cancer Society describes ways the National Cancer Database (NCDB) was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For the study, researchers reviewed 4,045,097 cancer cases of adults 18 years or older who were diagnosed with cancer and/or received their first-course…

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Editor's Note The US State Department will not accept any more applications for green cards for foreign nurses this year, and only applications that were submitted by June 2022 will be processed until the backlog eases, the April 24 Becker’s Clinical Leadership & Infection Control reports. Current green card processing…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), on April 19, identified the recall by Fresenius Kabi USA of its Ivenix Infusion System as Class I, the most serious. The recall was initiated because of a leak in the system that allows fluid to enter the administration set loading area…

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