Editor's Note In this study, a significant association was found between exposure to World Trade Center dust and long-term cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in firefighters. Of 9,796 firefighters analyzed, those who arrived first at the World Trade Center when dust was the thickest were found to have a 44% increased…

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Editor's Note Employment in US hospitals was up 8,800 jobs in August to a seasonally adjusted 5,253,200, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on September 6. That’s up 97,400 more employees than a year ago. Overall, healthcare employment has increased 392,100 in the past year. The overall unemployment rate remains…

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Editor's Note In this study, robotic cholecystectomy was associated with lesser lengths of stay and readmission rates than laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The robotic procedure also had greater operative duration and hospital costs. Of 3,255 patients who had cholecystectomy during the study period, the researchers matched 106 robotic and 1,060 laparoscopic cases.…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced September 4 that it will hold a Medical Devices Advisory Committee Meeting in November to discuss ethylene oxide (EO) sterilization of medical devices, including methods to reduce EO emissions. The committee also will provide recommendations on reducing infection risks from reprocessed…

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Editor's Note This study finds that supportive leadership is the primary factor contributing to millennial nurses’ job satisfaction. Using data from 1,006 nurses in the Professional Practice Work Environment Inventory survey, researchers found that demographic factors (ie, age, gender, race, ethnicity, work status, and experience) accounted for just 2.6% of…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on September 4 posted the Top 5 most challenging requirements identified most frequently as “not compliant” during surveys and reviews during the first half of 2019. The Top 5 for hospital accreditation are: LS.02.01.35: The hospital provides and maintains systems for extinguishing fires (91%). EC.02.05.01:…

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Editor's Note Strong evidence suggests that most declines in excess readmissions--after implementation of Medicare’s Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP)--at poorly performing hospitals can be explained by a statistical phenomenon called “regression to the mean [RTM],” this study finds. In RTM, entities farther away from the mean in one period are…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on August 29 issued a News Release recommending that healthcare facilities and manufacturers begin transitioning to duodenoscopes with disposable components to reduce the risk of patient infection. The FDA also announced additional actions they have taken to help ensure the safety of…

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Editor's Note In this study, changing the responsibility for ICU patient transports to the OR from the anesthesia to the ICU services did not change turnover times, but it resulted in more on-time starts and high compliance with preoperative checklist documentation. The crude proportion of on-time starts increased from 32.6%…

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Editor's Note There are gender differences in how physicians perceive EHR-related stress, satisfaction, and usability, finds this study. Of 25 ICU physicians who participated in the study, 48% were men and 52% were women. Overall task performance scores were similar, but men reported significantly higher perceived EHR workload stress and…

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