This article concludes OR Manager’s special series on artificial intelligence (AI). Parts 1 and 2 (May 2019 and June 2019) introduced AI, defining the different types of technology and describing its many current and potential applications for surgery. The series also presented examples of AI (June and July 2019). We…

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Surgeons are the biggest factor in any effort to streamline and standardize the purchase of new surgical devices—and thereby lower costs. But surgeons often balk at getting involved in product review and selection because of the additional demands on their time. Two leading healthcare organizations have moved past this stumbling…

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Editor's Note The Harvard Business School’s Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness has teamed up with the American College of Surgeons (ACS) to develop a value-based measurement program for hospitals and surgical practices. The program, “Transforming Healthcare Resources to Increase Value and Efficiency [ACS THRIVE],” will be tested at 10 to…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers developed service- and surgeon-specific statistical models using linear regression and machine learning to predict case-time duration at a large academic medical center. Results showed: The machine-learning algorithm had the highest predictive capability. The surgeon-specific was superior to the service-specific model, with higher accuracies and…

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Editor's Note An incentive spirometer reminder after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) improved patient adherence and, in turn, improved the atelectasis severity score and multiple subsequent clinical outcomes, this study finds. In this study of 212 patients who had CABG surgery, 145 were randomized by hourly reminder SpiroTimer “bell on”…

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Editor's Note The risk of adverse events increases with each additional day of surgical antimicrobial prophylaxis, and extended duration does not lead to additional surgical site infection (SSI) reductions, finds this study. In this study of 79,058 patients having surgical procedures in the VA healthcare system, increasing the duration of…

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Editor's Note Hospital network participation was not associated with improvements in surgical outcomes or Medicare expenditures, compared with hospitals not in a network, this study finds. In this analysis of nearly 2 million Medicare beneficiaries having general, vascular, cardiac, or orthopedic surgery between 2007 and 2014 at network (1,868) or…

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Editor's Note In this study, overlapping surgery in a tertiary care colorectal surgery practice was found to be safe and not linked to adverse patient outcomes. Of 1,270 patients having inpatient colorectal surgery at the Mayo Clinic, between 2012 and 2015, overlapping surgery occurred in 576 patients. Overall adverse events…

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Editor's Note Residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood in Maryland and being discharged from a hospital serving a large proportion of disadvantaged neighborhoods were independently associated with increased risk of readmission in this study. 2015 data from Maryland hospitals showed a 14.1% 30-day readmission rate for patients living in neighborhoods in…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital penalization in the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program (HACRP) was not associated with significant changes in rates of hospital acquired conditions (HACs), 30-day readmissions, or 30-day mortality and does not appear to drive meaningful clinical improvements, this study finds.…

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