Editor's Note All eligible Medicare-certified ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) that want to avoid future penalties must complete a new electronic form by April 14 via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Healthcare Safety Network website in order to report on ASC-8: Influenza Vaccination Coverage among Healthcare Personnel, the Ambulatory…
Editor's Note Though still underused, this study found civilian prehospital tourniquet application tied to a six-fold reduction in mortality in peripheral vascular injuries. The Texas Tourniquet Study Group analyzed 1,026 patients with vascular injuries of the arms or legs admitted to 11 Level I trauma centers in Texas from 2011…
Editor's Note Joint Commission president Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, says he doesn’t want healthcare organizations to just imagine a day of zero harm, he wants them to achieve it, the Joint Commission announced on April 4. Dr Chassin talked about “Leading the Way to Zero” in an article for…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration announced that new data elements will be available on AccessGUDID, in the download files and in the APIs, as of April 2. Data for FDA Premarket Submission Number and FDA Premarket Supplement Number will not be provided until this summer. The FDA is…
Editor's Note The poor design of electronic health records (EHRs) poses challenges for primary care practices to generate the required reports for federal value-based payment programs, this study finds. An analysis of survey responses from 1,492 practices in 12 states, found that the reports generated for meaningful-use participation, which requires…
Editor's Note Patients at Porter Adventist Hospital in Denver may be at risk for HIV or hepatitis after the hospital discovered a surgical instrument sterilization breach, the April 5 LiveScience reports. The process for precleaning surgical instruments was found to be inadequate, which may have put patients who had orthopedic…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on April 4 that it is no longer scoring two elements of performance (EPs), effective March 9, that were removed from the Medication Compounding chapter in the Home Care Accreditation program standards manual and the Compounding Sterile and Nonsterile Preparations chapter in the Medication…
Editor's Note Black and white disparities in hospital readmission rates narrowed after the introduction of Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program that penalizes higher than expected readmissions; however, black and white gaps still persist and minority serving hospitals continued to be penalized more by the program, this study finds. During the…
Editor's Note At First Hill Surgery Center in Seattle, patients can have a knee or hip replaced in the morning and go home in the afternoon, the April Seattle Magazine reports. The surgical procedure takes about 2 hours, and patients admitted at 7:30 am generally are able to return home…
Editor's Note Anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) can be performed on an outpatient basis with comparable morbidity, readmission rates, and lower costs as on an inpatient basis, finds this study. In this analysis of 3,135 outpatient and 46,966 inpatient ACDFs, the mean Charlson comorbidity index, length of stay, and…
