Safety In an opinion piece called “Keeping Our Defenses Up Against Cyberattacks,” American Hospital Association (AHA) President and CEO Rick Pollack links cybersecurity to patient safety. Mr. Pollack notes that there has been a “troubling increase in cyber threats perpetrated by international cyber gangs and state-sponsored hackers this summer” who are…
UVA Health researchers have discovered how a form of postoperative delirium that often strikes older patients “may set the stage for dementia—and identified a drug that could reverse the underlying brain changes,” according to a post by the health system. The researchers found that “anesthesia, surgery and intensive care stress…
Hospitals and ASCs are always planning for disaster response, but there is virtually no way this OR team could have fully prepared for this one. What’s remarkable, however, is how the team instinctively reacted in the moment as a powerful earthquake struck Kumamoto General Hospital in Japan while a surgery…
Researchers from Samuel Merritt University College of Nursing have published a study in Journal of PeriAnesthesia Nursing about a quality improvement project that examined the degree to which the implementation of a fall risk protocol in an ASC would impact staff nurses’ compliance. The protocol, which was introduced to a…
Matthew Dellaquila, MD, president of the Michigan Society of Anesthesiologists and chief and medical director of anesthesiology services at Henry Ford Jackson Hospital, has published an article on news site Michigan Advance called “Physician anesthesiologists need to know if you’re taking Ozempic or another GLP-1 drug.” Perioperative providers are grappling…
Michigan has become the 22nd U.S. state to pass a law mandating the use of a surgical smoke evacuation system during every plume-producing procedure. On July 23, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed HB 4779 into law, making Michigan the 22nd state to enact legislation to protect staff and patients from surgical…
The Leapfrog Group, which rates healthcare facilities on patient safety and quality of care, has published its 2026 ratings for more than 2,400 U.S. hospitals and more than 3,900 U.S. ASCs. It stated that the results “mark the highest level of participation in Leapfrog’s 26-year history.” The ratings are available…
The United States Attorney’s Offices for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia announced that West Virginia University Health System (WVUHS) agreed to pay $4,177,139 and enter a three-year Memorandum of Agreement with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to resolve civil allegations after the agency’s investigation found that the…
The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and The Leapfrog Group have jointly announced a new Recognized Leader in Geriatric Surgery designation to be awarded to “hospitals that provide high-quality surgical care for older adults.” Hospitals will be eligible for the designation beginning in 2027. The organizations stated that the designation…
With cyclosporiasis cases on the rise, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated this week that it has “received reports of 1,645 confirmed domestic cases of cyclosporiasis and is aware of more than 5,100 cases that require further analysis to confirm the illness as domestically acquired cyclosporiasis.” The…
