Editor's Note The Joint Commission on July 24 announced a new advisory on pressure injuries related to medical devices--including feeding or oxygen tubes, catheters, orthopedic devices, bedpans, and casts--which now account for more than 30% of all hospital-acquired pressure injuries. The Joint Commission Quick Safety, Issue 43: “Managing medical device-related…

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Editor's Note Frailty posed a higher risk of mortality in younger coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients than older patients, this Canadian study finds. In this analysis of 40,083 patients who underwent CABG surgery between 2008 and 2015, researchers found that frailty was associated with poor early and long-term postoperative…

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Editor's Note Cybersecurity firm Cryptonite reports there were eight major healthcare data breaches in the first half of 2018, down from 19 during the same time in 2017, according to the July 18 Healthcare Informatics. However, the number of patient records breached this year was up, with more than 1.9…

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Editor's Note In adults more than 70 years of age, exposure to general anesthesia and surgery was associated with a subtle decline in memory and thinking skills in this study. Of 1,819 patients in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, exposure to anesthesia after age 70 was linked to long-term…

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Editor's Note A Transparency Market Research report predicts the global market for small bone and joint orthopedic devices will reach $8.2 billion by 2023, with an 8.1% compound annual growth rate, the July 19 Becker’s Spine Review reports. Among the key players in the market, which is led by the…

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Editor's Note Preoperative opioid use was associated with significantly increased risks of early revisions and 30-day readmissions after total knee and total hip arthroplasties, this study finds. The study included 324,154 patients in a 1-year follow-up group and 159,822 in a 3-year follow-up group. For total knee patients, the hospital…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on July 18 announced that it will implement several standards changes for fluoroscopy services in ambulatory care organizations, critical access hospitals, hospitals, and office-based surgery practices, effective January 1, 2019. The revisions clarify expectations and address areas of risk with imaging, and they include a…

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Editor's Note Lowering the default number of opioid pills prescribed in an electronic health record (EHR) system is a simple, effective, inexpensive, and potentially scalable intervention to change prescriber behavior and decrease the amount of opioids prescribed postoperatively, finds this study. In this analysis of 1,447 procedures before the default…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on July 19 finalized its guidance for using electronic health record (EHR) data in FDA-regulated clinical studies. The guidance is meant to encourage the use of EHR data in clinical studies and promote greater interoperability between EHR and electronic data capture systems.…

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Editor's Note When recruiting Generations X and Y candidates for nursing administration roles, interventions supporting work-life harmony should be emphasized, this study finds. Respondents to a survey, which examined the impact of a set of interventions on recruiting nurses into administrative roles, indicated that 45% of the interventions had a…

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