Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent warning letters August 12 to three manufacturers of duodenoscopes involved in transmitting deadly bacteria earlier this year, the Boston Globe reports. The FDA says the companies (Olympus, Pentax, and Fujifilm) failed to: report problems with the scopes as required by law…
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced on August 13 that 360 more organizations have entered into agreements to assume financial risk for an episode of care during the second phase of the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Initiative. The initiative is testing four bundled payment models…
Editor's Note Patients who listened to music before, during, or after surgical procedures had less postoperative pain and anxiety and higher patient satisfaction, in this study. Choice of music and timing of delivery made little difference. Music was effective even when patients were under general anesthesia.
Editor's Note Many high risk therapeutic devices receive Food and Drug Administration (FDA) premarket approval with few studies to back their safety and efficacy, Yale researchers find. Studies of how the devices perform once on the market also are few. Of 28 high risk devices that received premarket approval between…
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on August 12 extended the partial enforcement delay of the “Two-Midnight” rule from September 30 to December 31, AHA News reports. The extension prohibits Recovery Audit Contractors from conducing post-payment patient status reviews for claims with admission dates October 1 to…
Editor's Note Nearly one-quarter of more than 600 wrong-site surgery events reported to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority (PPSA) since 2004 have involved wrong-site anesthesia blocks. Based on these findings, PPSA has developed evidence-based practices for preventing wrong-site surgery and wrong-site anesthesia blocks that complement the Joint Commission’s Universal Protocol.…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission has partnered with the Food & Drug Administration, Council for Surgical & Perioperative Safety, and others in the Preventing Surgical Fires Initiative, which has released new, updated resources for preventing surgical fires. These include: A presentation on “Preventing Surgical Fires and Burns in Healthcare Facilities”…
Editor's Note When anesthesiologists supervise anesthesia residents and nurse anesthetists, the amount of clinical work (total weekly hours) they perform does not positively correlate with the quality of the supervision they provide, this study finds. The results suggest that anesthesiology department managers should be monitoring (and perhaps reporting) the quality…
Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration on August 7 labeled the recall of Beacon Tip angiographic catheters by Cook Medical as Class I, the most serious. The catheter tip may split or separate from the catheter and enter the patient’s bloodstream. Cook Medical has received 26 reports of the…
Editor's Note Implementation of a pediatric screening questionnaire (Snoring, Trouble Breathing, Un-Refreshed [STBUR]) helped anesthesia professionals identify children with symptoms of sleep-disordered breathing before undergoing general anesthesia, in this study. The likelihood of developing a perioperative respiratory adverse event increased three-fold when three of the five questions were answered yes…
