Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is granting exemptions under Medicare quality reporting and value-based purchasing programs for certified providers (eg, acute care hospitals, long-term care hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers) affected by storms and flooding from Hurricane Irma. Providers will be granted exemptions without having to…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 19 updated its Safety Alert for urogynecologic surgical mesh manufactured by Boston Scientific. After an extensive review of data and testing, the FDA has determined that the change in supplier of the polypropylene used to manufacture the mesh currently on…
Editor's Note There are enough healthcare-associated infection (HAI) data reported on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website to meet minimal criteria for useful hospital comparisons in many geographic areas; however, it varies by type of HAI, this study finds. The analysis included data from 4,561…
Editor's Note The House Energy & Commerce Health Subcommittee on September 13 approved legislation that would remove a requirement to make meaningful use standards for electronic health records (EHRs) more stringent over time, the September 13 AHA News Now reports. In a letter of support for the bill, which is…
Editor's Note Analysis by 360 Market Updates estimates that the lumbar spine fusion market will see a compound annual growth rate of 4.9% through 2021, the September 15 Becker’s Spine Review reports. A key driver of growth is the increasing popularity of physician-owned ambulatory surgery centers. DePuy Synthes, Medtronic, Stryker,…
Editor's Note Antimicrobial-impregnated scrub clothes are not effective at reducing healthcare provider contamination, this study finds. Cultures were obtained from each of 40 ICU nurses, the healthcare environment, and patients during each shift. Nurses wore standard cotton-polyester surgical scrubs (control), scrubs that contained a complex element compound with a silver-alloy…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 13 announced the recall by OriGen Biomedical (Austin, Texas) of two lots of its VV28F Reinforced Dual Lumen ECMO [extracorporeal membrane oxygenation] Catheters (Catalog number VV28F, Lots N18487 and V18487-1). The recall was initiated because the catheters have the potential…
Editor's Note Infection control practices that focus on perioperative patient skin and wound hygiene and transparent display of surgical site infection (SSI) data, not OR attire policies, were associated with lower SSI rates in this multi-center study. A total of 20 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 13 announced a new Sentinel Event Alert that focuses on inadequate hand-offs and tips to improve them. A common problem with hand-offs is communication, which is the focus of “Sentinel Event Alert, Issue 58: Inadequate hand-off communication.” The alert includes an infographic of…
Editor's Note From 2008 to 2014, rates of postoperative readmissions declined for both Hospital Readmission Reduction Program targeted procedures (total hip and total knee replacements)--from 6.8% to 4.8%--and nontargeted procedures (colectomy, lung resection, abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, coronary artery bypass graft, aortic valve replacement, and mitral valve repair)--from 17.1% to…
