Editor's Note The burden and bureaucracy of today’s practice of medicine are major factors influencing physicians’ intentions to reduce work hours or leave the profession, finds this study from the American Medical Association, Mayo Clinic, and Stanford University. Of nearly 36,000 physicians across all specialties surveyed, 6,880 (19.2%) responded. Nearly 1…
Editor's Note The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAHC) announced on November 2 that it has developed a new Orthopaedic Certification program for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs). After an ASC achieves overall accreditation, it can acquire the Orthopaedic Certification to demonstrate excellence in the specialty of orthopaedics by meeting…
Editor's Note High-risk, noncancerous flat epithelial atypia (FEA) breast lesions can be treated with close observation rather than surgical removal in most cases, this study finds. The analysis of 208 patients diagnosed with FEA over a 9-year period found that after mammography, biopsy, and surgical excision, five lesions (2.4%) were…
Editor's Note For the third year in a row, researchers with the Lewin Group couldn’t determine whether Medicare’s voluntary Bundled Payment for Care Improvement initiative cuts costs and improves care, the October 31 Modern Healthcare reports. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) funded analysis found that although providers…
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued new guidance designed to offer clarity on the Merit-based Incentive Payment System’s (MIPS) data blocking component, the October 30 Healthcare Informatics reports. The guidance outlines how MIPS-eligible clinicians can show they are fulfilling the information blocking requirement, which…
Editor's Note Robotic-assisted nephrectomy is more expensive and takes longer than conventional laparoscopic nephrectomy and confers no additional benefits, this study finds. The proportion of robotic-assisted nephrectomies increased from 1.5% in 2003 to 27% in 2015. Of 23,753 patients analyzed, no significant differences were found in major postoperative complications between…
Editor's Note Making discharge instructions easier to read resulted in fewer phone calls from traumatic injury patients after discharge, finds this study presented October 25 at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2017 in San Diego. A total of 1,006 patients were included in the study, 493 in…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on October 31 issued a Safety Alert saying that interim study results continue to show an increased rate of major adverse cardiac events and Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS) thrombosis in patients receiving the Absorb GT1 BVS by Abbott Vascular (Abbott Park, Illinois),…
Editor's Note A patient’s waist measurement can predict the risk of complications and death after emergency general surgery, finds this study presented October 26 at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2017 in San Diego. Included in the study were 608 emergency general surgery patients who had preoperative CT…
Editor's Note Elderly hip fracture patients were less likely to die or return to the emergency department (ED) after discharge if they received care under the Perioperative Surgical Home (PSH) model of care, finds this study presented October 21 at the Anesthesiology 2017 annual meeting in Boston. PSH patients also…
