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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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 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 led by researchers at the University of Queensland, Australia, finds that cases of major depressive and anxiety disorders increased by more than a quarter worldwide in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the findings: There was an additional 53.2 million cases (a 27.6% increase) of…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on October 12 announced that it will implement new and revised Performance Improvement (PI) and Leadership (LD) accreditation standards for its Laboratory Accreditation Program, effective January 1, 2022. The revisions factor in two common themes of organizations with successful improvement programs: Adoption of an established…

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Editor's Note This study led by researchers at the NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, finds that the World Health Organization (WHO) Surgical Safety Checklist is positively impacting the things it was explicitly designed to address. The analysis included 36 articles and 20 systematic reviews. A thematic analysis revealed…

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