Editor's Note Air particle counts (APCs) in the OR increase in relation to traffic and door openings, this study finds. Over 1 week, researchers recorded APCs in 5-minute intervals and movement of healthcare workers in the OR. Trained observers recorded information about traffic, door openings, job title of the opener,…

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Editor's Note An analysis by Absolute Reports predicts the global lumbar spine fusion market will see a 4.9% compound annual growth rate through the next 4 years, according to the April 26 Becker’s Spine Review. Driving market growth is: a growing demand for minimally invasive spine surgeries an increasing incidence…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on April 27 issued a Safety Alert saying the agency had approved label changes on the use of general anesthetic and sedation drugs in children younger than 3 years. The changes include: A new warning that exposure to these drugs for lengthy…

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Editor's Note Contrary to claims that overlapping surgeries are dangerous or harmful to patients, they were not found to be associated with worse patient outcomes in this study presented April 25 at the 2017 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting in Los Angeles. The analysis included 14,872 neurosurgical…

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Editor's Note The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has started converting older, inactive paper healthcare records to electronic health records (EHRs) in an effort to reduce the amount of office space used for storage of patient records and to streamline the claims processes, the April 24 EHR intelligence reports. This…

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Editor's Note A survey by SERMO (a global social network for physicians) of 3,086 physicians from 26 countries found that 46% have witnessed an EHR malfunction or outage that endangered a patient’s health or safety, according to the April 24 Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review. A total of 55%…

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Editor's Note In this study, the use of preoperative and postoperative elements of a Perioperative Surgical Home model in total knee and hip patients was associated with improvements in operational outcomes. The study included 1,225 patients in a preintervention PSH group and 1,363 in a postintervention PSH group. Compared with…

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Editor's Note A new trend in US healthcare, known as “micro-hospitals,” offers care in underserved communities and provides an alternative to emergency care at major hospitals, according to the April 24 US News & World Reports. Micro-hospitals, already built in 19 states, have an average of 8 to 10 short-stay…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced April 26 that Select Medical, based in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is the first recipient of its Physician Leader Forum Challenge Award. The award recognizes Select Medical’s leading practice for wound care and prevention of pressure ulcers in patients throughout the system. An improvement project lowered…

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Editor's Note A survey of public perceptions of overlapping surgery found that only a small minority of the general public is aware of the practice. Of 1,454 respondents, 56 (3.9%) were aware of overlapping surgery, and 440 (31%) supported or strongly supported the practice. The majority believed attending surgeons should…

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