Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) led the list of newer patient care models in use at hospitals that employ respondents to the 2018 OR Manager Salary/Career Survey. A total of 42% of hospital-based OR leaders said ERAS had been or would soon be implemented in their facilities, down slightly from…

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Editor's Note New data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) shows that 93% of eligible clinicians who participated in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) under the Quality Payment Program (QPP) received positive payment adjustments for their performance last year, the November 9 EHR Intelligence reports. Only…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on November 6 released “Pioneers in Quality eCQM Proven Practices Collection: Recognizing Success 2017-2018.” The publication recognizes healthcare organizations that have successfully leveraged electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) and health information technology to drive quality improvement. Nine hospitals are featured:  BayCare Health System, Inc, Clearwater,…

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Editor's Note Hospitals with high volumes of surgical aortic valve replacements (SAVRs) are more likely to be fast adopters of transcatheter aortic valve replacement procedures (TAVRs), and accumulating SAVR and TAVR caseloads is associated with better survival after TAVR, this study finds. Using Medicare data on 60,538 TAVR procedures performed…

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Editor's Note In this study, minimally invasive radical hysterectomy was associated with worse overall survival and higher recurrence rates than open abdominal radical hysterectomy for women with early-stage IA or IB cervical cancer. Of 631 patients analyzed: Minimally invasive surgery was associated with a three-fold increase in disease progression. The…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) on October 31 recognized 83 hospitals for achieving “Meritorious” outcomes for surgical patient care in 2017; 568 hospitals were eligible. ACS NSQIP-participating hospitals are required to track outcomes of inpatient and outpatient surgical outcomes and analyze…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers developed an algorithm model that accurately identified surgical site infections (SSIs) using independent variables from electronic health record data and outcomes from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). Researchers fit 3 models to data from patients having surgery at the…

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Editor's Note ECRI Institute on October 30 announced a new white paper--Value Analysis: Addressing Top Challenges by Using the PICOTS Framework--which presents findings from national seminars on the top five challenges value analysis professionals face daily. The challenges are: Antiquated workflow C-suite buy-in Accessibility to data Physician engagement Bandwidth. The…

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Editor's Note Colectomy patients participating in a preoperative prehabilitation program had positive physiologic effects and experienced fewer complications, this study finds. The prehabilitation program−Michigan Surgical and Health Optimization Program (MSHOP)−engages patients in four activities before surgery: Physical activity, pulmonary rehabilitation, nutritional optimization, and stress reduction. For the study, patients were…

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Editor's Note Most complications of colorectal resection steadily decreased and early hospital discharges increased over 10 years of participation in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP), finds this study presented October 24 at the American College of Surgeons 2018 Clinical Congress in Boston. Of…

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