Editor's Note Effective July 1, telehealth providers can apply for a new Joint Commission accreditation designed to ensure safe, high-quality care. Announced April 23 by The Joint Commission, the new Telehealth Accreditation Program is designed for organizations that exclusively provide care, treatment and services via telehealth. Hospitals and other healthcare…

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Editor's Note A study published March 30 in Nurse Education in Practice found that the majority of nurses with less than 2 years of work experience are uncomfortable performing more complex procedures independently. Conducted by Singapore General Hospital, Sengkang General Hospital, and Singapore Institute of Technology, the study aimed to…

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Editor's Note The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lumisight (pegulicianine), a fluorescent imaging drug used to detect cancerous tissue during lumpectomy, on April 17. Administered intravenously prior to surgery, Lumisight is designed for use with the Lumicell Direct Visualization System (DVS) or another imaging device that is FDA-approved…

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TAKEAWAYS • HR should be involved early in the disciplinary process to help guide OR leaders’ decision-making throughout disciplinary and/or remediatoin processes. • Timing, privacy, opportunities for employee feedback, and an empathetic approach are among the most important considerations for a final termination meeting. • Whatever the process for communicating…

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TAKEAWAYS • Addressing an employee with a competency or behavior issue is important for the well-being of staff and managers. • Determining the reason for the issue is an important first step to resolving it. • Sources of support for managers include colleagues, human resources, and educators. In today’s perioperative…

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Left sniffling and sneezing after a whirlwind 4 days at my first AORN Global Surgical Conference and Expo in Nashville, Tennessee, I had more on my mind than whether the term “conference-acquired infection (CAI)” was officially part of the medical nomenclature, much less whether any studies had been done. I…

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Editor's Note By putting the patient into deeper sedation during colonoscopy, propofol could help doctors find difficult-to-spot, potentially cancerous “serrated” polyps, according to a study published April 17 in Anesthesiology. As an alternative to moderate, “conscious” sedation, propofol facilitates a more thorough exam that is more likely to identify serrated…

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Editor's Note Artificial intelligence (AI) is a useful tool for helping clinicians to determine health problems from medical imaging, but AI often provides just one answer, when there may be a number of possible interpretations. Now, researchers from MIT, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Massachusetts General Hospital…

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Editor's Note Designed to address high rates of preventable medical errors, a new initiative from The National Quality Form (NQF), an affiliate of The Joint Commission, will modernize criteria for what constitutes a Serious Reportable Event (SRE) and align standards for reporting such events across different accountability systems. Dubbed “Focus…

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Editor's Note Adverse events are a ubiquitous, inevitable consequence of surgical practice, and more must be done to support surgeons before and after they occur. This is the central message of a video published March 27 by Urology Times, in which British urologist Kevin Turner, MA DM FRCS, of Royal…

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