Editor's Note The nation’s top performing states for healthcare quality according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s updated State Snapshots are: Main Massachusetts Wisconsin New Hampshire Minnesota. State Snapshots is an interactive online resource that provides data on how each state and the District of Columbia perform on…

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Editor's Note This study found a strong association between spinal anesthesia and lower 30-day mortality along with a shorter length of stay after total hip and knee replacements. Of 10,868 patients analyzed, 8,553 had spinal anesthesia and 2,315 had general anesthesia. The 30-day mortality rate was 0.19% in the spinal…

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Editor's Note A survey of general surgery residents in the US finds high rates of burnout. Of 665 residents surveyed, 69% met the criterion for burnout in at least one of three subscales. Higher rates of burnout on each subscale were reported by residents planning private practice compared with academic…

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Editor's Note This study found a marked decline from 1998 to 2013 in surgical (open and laparoscopic) common bile duct exploration (CBDE) for choledocholithiasis (ie, bile duct stones). At the same time, the rate of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) increased and is becoming the predominant treatment strategy. The percentage of…

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Editor's Note The Commission on Cancer of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) on August 23 granted its mid-year 2016 Outstanding Achievement Award to 20 accredited US cancer programs. The purposed of the award is to: raise the bar on quality cancer care recognize programs that achieve excellence in providing…

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Editor's Note Medicare’s value-based purchasing (VBP) program revealed superior performance associated with physician owned surgical hospitals in this study. Researchers analyzed 3,089 hospitals that included physician-owned surgical, University HealthSystem Consortium, US News & World Report Honor Roll, Kaiser Permanente, and Accountable Care Organization hospitals. Estimated mean total performance scores were…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s (CMS) hospital readmission penalties will hit a new high over the next year as the government agency withholds more than half a million dollars in payments, the August 2 Kaiser Health News reports. CMS will punish more than half of US hospitals…

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Editor's Note For four cardiovascular and four cancer procedures, surgeon specialization was an important predictor of operative mortality, independent of volume, this study finds. Analyzing Medicare data for more than 25,000 surgeons and nearly 700,000 patients, the relative risk reduction from greater specialization in the cardiovascular procedures ranged from 15%…

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Editor's Note US News & World Report on August 2 released it 27th Annual Best Hospitals list, which compares nearly 5,000 hospitals nationwide in 25 specialties, procedures, or conditions. The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is Number 1 this year, followed by the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, and the…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) on July 27 released its Overall Hospital Quality Star Ratings of 3,617 hospitals. Only 102 received the top rating of five stars, and only a few of those are considered among the nation’s best, including Memorial Hermann Hospital System in Houston…

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