Improving patient outcomes and providing a superior experience for patients were at the forefront of the decision to grow the robotics service line at Northeast Georgia Medical Center (NGMC), Gainesville. Expanding from one da Vinci S system by Intuitive and six robotics surgeons covering five specialties in 2008 to four…

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The new year is just around the corner, and it will bring new challenges for OR leaders as well as fresh opportunities to improve clinical, financial, and operational performance. The typical surgery department is a “target-rich environment”: low utilization, long turnover times, inefficient charge capture, poor documentation, high supply costs,…

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Editor's Note In this study, Cleveland Clinic researchers find that patients with certain sleep disorders have more severe outcomes from COVID-19. The analysis included 5,402 patients. Although patients with sleep-disordered breathing and sleep-related hypoxia did not have an increased risk of developing COVID-19, they had a worse clinical prognosis from…

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Editor's Note ECRI and its affiliate, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), on November 10, announced that Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health had won their 2021 Safety Excellence Award. Jefferson Health’s award-winning initiative redirected their safety approach from departmental/project-based to a system-wide integrated and coordinated safety management system across 18 hospitals.…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, find that most readmissions and emergency department (ED) visits (ie, revisits) of COVID-19 patients following initial admission were not preventable. Of 576 COVID-19 hospitalizations, 76 resulted in a 30-day revisit (13.2%)—21 ED visits…

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Editor's Note About half of patients with appendicitis do not need an appendectomy for up to 4 years after receiving antibiotics, finds this study presented October 25 at the American College of Surgeons virtual Clinical Congress 2021. The study was conducted at 25 US medical centers in 1,552 adults with…

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Editor's Note This study from the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that the transition to incorporate virtual care into ambulatory healthcare during COVID-19 was not associated with an increased overall number of visits. The researchers identified 10,559,857 ambulatory visits by 1,530,772 patients at their large New…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, find that overweight and obese adolescents and adults experienced more respiratory symptoms from COVID-19. Of 552 individuals enrolled in the study, 470 tested positive for COVID-19, including 261 adults (18 years or more old), 61 adolescents…

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Editor's Note In an October 26 news release, ECRI announced the publication of a Position Statement on “COVID-19 Vaccines: Mitigating Disease and Promoting Global Health Equity.” Speaking in support of the Statement, Marcus Schabacker, MD, PhD, president and chief executive officer, ECRI, says: “Despite the FDA and CDC’s advancement of…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, identifies three themes centered on trust and addressing barriers to COVID-19 vaccine access in Black and Latinx communities in the US. The study involved 72 participants—56 women, 16 men, 36 Black, 28 Latinx, and 8…

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