Editor's Note Patients who underwent desensitization therapy and received kidney transplants from HLA-incompatible live donors had a substantial survival benefit, compared with patients who did not undergo transplantation or those who waited for transplants from deceased donors, this study finds. Researchers from Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, enrolled 1,025 patients at 22…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are collaborating on an initiative designed to adapt, enhance, and disseminated CDC guidelines on infection prevention in ambulatory health care settings. The initiative, “Adaptation and Dissemination of Outpatient Infection PrevenTion (ADOPT) Guidance,” will focus on free-standing…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 11 announced the Class I recall of  Arrow International Intra-Aortic Balloon Catheter Kits and Percutaneous Insertion Kits by Teleflex Incorporated (Wayne, Pennsylvania). Class I is the FDA’s most serious recall classification. The Kits are being recalled because the sheath body…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on March 9 that the Michigan Health & Hospital Association and its member hospitals have partnered with the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare on a statewide high reliability organization improvement effort. Michigan is the second state to partner with the Center; South Carolina…

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Editor's Note Key skills may be lacking among nurses who treat patients with urinary catheters, finds this study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Of 394 nurses surveyed, 76.1% reported receiving education on catheter-associated urinary tract infection risk reduction in the last 12 months. Though 83% said they…

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Editor's Note An immediate consultation between trauma surgeons and a geriatrician improved care and outcomes for elderly accident victims in this study. Researchers compared processes of care and clinical outcomes before and after a trauma surgery program began in September 2013 that automatically referred trauma patients aged 70 years and…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has released a toolkit to help healthcare providers track and respond to ICD-10 performance indicators. The toolkit includes tips and resources for: assessing ICD-10 progress using key performance indicators to identify potential issues that could affect productivity or cash flow addressing…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 8 issued a warning about magnetic interference between breast tissue expanders with magnetic ports and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) or pacemakers in patients. The breast expanders can interfere with the functioning of these cardiac devices, causing them to go into "magnet…

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Editor's Note The surgical approach to total hip (ie, anterior or posterior) has no effect on outcomes at 6 months after surgery, finds this study presented March 3 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Of 274 patients who had total hip replacements between June 2012…

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Editor's Note Physician practices each year spend 785 hours per physician to track and report quality measures for Medicare and private health insurers at a cost of  more than $15.4 billion a year, this study finds. Eight in 10 physicians surveyed reported spending more effort on quality measures now than…

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