Editor's Note The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) has opened a public comment period for proposed revisions to its v44 standards, ASC Focus February 28 reports. From now until March 29, healthcare professionals and other stakeholders are encouraged to share insights that will help refine the guidance for…
Takeaways • The prevalence of needlesticks and other sharp object injuries to OR team members is 42.8%, an increase of 16% over the past decade. • New research and perspectives are shaping the discourse around sharps safety, such as new and expanded evidence-based practices presented in AORN’s 2025 update to…
Health systems are fundamentally capital intensive. They are regulated; depend on highly educated, high-cost employees; and operate under complex reimbursement structures. Investing in new technologies and infrastructure upgrades is imperative to keeping up with the latest medical advances. But what happens when capital funds are insufficient or no longer available?…
It is often said that small actions lead to big results. This so happens to be the case with hand hygiene compliance (HHC) in healthcare. Imagine a simple act, like washing hands, cutting infection rates by half—hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) and surgical site infections being reduced simply by improving handwashing behaviors.…
Editor's Note For the first time in Canada, surgeons aim to restore a patient’s sight by gluing a lens into a removed tooth, temporarily implanting the structure into the cheek to develop a tissue lining, then sewing it onto the front of eye three months later. CTV News reported on…
Editor's Note A February 21 article in Modern Healthcare details how surgical robots are delivering faster procedures, improving patient outcomes, and boosting hospital profits. As detailed in the article, the global surgical robotics market has quadrupled since 2015, growing from $800 million to approximately $3 to $3.5 billion in 2023…
Editor's Note AI-generated operative reports for robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy (RARP) were more accurate than those written by surgeons in a study published February 7 in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. Analyzing 158 cases from a tertiary referral center, researchers tested an AI computer-vision algorithm on surgical video…
Editor’s Note Large language models (LLMs) outperformed traditional methods in predicting postoperative complications, according to a study on artificial intelligence (AI) in perioperative risk assessment published February 11 in the journal Nature. Results indicate AI-driven models could enhance patient safety and streamline clinical workflows by detecting complications earlier. Researchers analyzed…
Editor's Note Researchers at Northwestern University successfully reversed hernias in male mice and restored normal anatomy without surgical intervention, according to a February 5 university announcement. The study also found that human hernia tissue shared the same molecular characteristics observed in the mouse model, suggesting a similar biological mechanism. According…
Editor's Note Attendees to the 2025 OR Business Management Conference gained new insight with an international flavor from Moustafa Bleik and Fadi Fares, who had flown all the way from Saudi Arabia to detail recent improvements at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center. In a session with multiple audience…