Editor's Note The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) on May 8 announced the release of its new Opioid Stewardship Toolkit to help providers review and assess the volume and length of opioid prescriptions and dosages to mitigate risk of patient overdose and death. AAAHC created the toolkit to…

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Editor's Note After emergency general surgery, frailty is associated with increased rates of mortality, discharge to an institution, and resource use, this Canadian study finds. Of 77,184 patients analyzed, 19,779 were frail. Death within 1 year of surgery occurred in 33.5% of frail patients, compared with 19.8% of nonfrail patients. Risk…

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Editor's Note Murmur software helps bridge communication gaps by sending information from an electronic health record, to a hospital's scheduling software, to a physician's cell phone if a patient is readmitted within 5 days, according to Medscape’s coverage of a study presented May 4 at the Society of Hospital Medicine’s…

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Editor's Note Medicare’s Nonpayment Program of 2008, which withholds hospital reimbursement for costs related to hospital-acquired conditions (HACs), was associated with a declined in the incidence of selected HACs, and the decline was greater in hospitals with a higher Medicare utilization ratio (MUR), this study finds. Of 867,584 Medicare patients…

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Editor's Note ECRI Institute on May 5 announced that Penn Medicine Center for Health Care Innovation in Philadelphia was the winner of the 11th Health Devices Achievement Award. Penn Medicine received the award for its technology platform designed for creating custom apps to help clinicians better manage specific patient populations.…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on May 5 announced that Medtronic is recalling its splice kit used to repair the driveline of the HeartWare Ventricular Assist Device (VAD). The kit was recalled because of a design problem that prevents the repaired cable assembly from withstanding excessive force…

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Editor's Note The US House of Representatives on May 4 passed the American Health Care Act with 217 yes votes; 216 was the number needed. The bill now moves to the Senate. The House Republicans passed the American Health Care Act with a slim majority on Thursday. The bill gives…

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Editor's Note Obese Class II and III were associated with an independent risk of pulmonary complications after outpatient surgery in this study. Of 444,532 patients included in this analysis, there were 996 all cause pulmonary complications. Binary logistic regression identified body mass index (BMI) as an independent predictor of a…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on May 3 that accreditation programs for ambulatory care (85 fewer), behavioral healthcare (63 fewer), critical access hospitals (143 fewer), home care (65 fewer), laboratories (50 fewer), nursing care centers (59 fewer), and office-based surgery practices (50 fewer) will see fewer elements of performance…

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Editor's Note Postoperative complications add an important marginal cost to Medicare payments and lead to a substantial portion of payments to hospitals, this study finds. Analyzing Medicare data for three procedures from 2009 to 2012, payments per uncomplicated surgical procedure were $13,500 for colectomy, $12,300 for total knee arthroplasty, and…

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