Editor's Note Last year, government regulators blocked large companies that employ many low-wage workers from claiming that insurance coverage with no inpatient hospital benefits met the Affordable Care Act’s rules. These same companies are now purporting to meet the rules with plans that exclude outpatient surgery, the January 21 Washington Post…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on January 26 published draft guidance for “Design considerations and premarket submission recommendations for interoperable medical devices” to assist medical device manufacturers in designing products that are interoperable and can securely share data. The draft includes factors to consider when developing the…

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Editor's Note This Canadian study finds that transformational leadership practices lead to high quality care and increased retention of new nurses. Conversely, abusive managers lead to poorer quality care and a strong intention for nurses to leave healthcare facilities and quit the nursing profession. The authors surveyed a sample of…

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Editor's Note Preoperative frailty was associated with a significantly increased risk of 1-year mortality after surgery, this study finds. Of nearly 203,000 patients included in the analysis, 6,289 were frail. Within 1 year of surgery, 13.6% of the frail and 4.8% of the nonfrail patients died. The association between frailty…

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Editor's Note Abbott’s Compounding Pharmacy (Berkeley, California) is recalling all lots of sterile compounded products because of concerns of lack of sterility assurance. Products include injectable medications, sterile solutions, eye drops, and eye ointments. The recall was issued after a series of onsite inspections by the Food and Drug Administration…

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Editor's Note Nearly 300 patients who had colonoscopies at Baystate Noble Hospital in Westfield, Massachusetts, may have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis because of a lack of adequate disinfection measures used to clean endoscopes, the January 23 Tech Times reports. The hospital started using new equipment that required a…

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Editor's Note Hospitals with better nursing work environments and above-average staffing levels were associated with better surgical value (ie, lower mortality with similar costs), especially for higher-risk patients, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, found. The study compared outcomes and patient costs at 35 focal hospitals recognized nationally as…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on January 25 announced that Parrish Medical Center, Titusville, Florida, is the first hospital to be awarded its Integrated Care Certification. The Joint Commission began offering the certification in July 2015 to recognize hospitals and ambulatory care settings that excel at integrating information-sharing, transitions of…

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Editor's Note No significant association was found between cumulative exposure to general anesthesia and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in patients over 40 years of age in this study from the Mayo Clinic. Of 1,731 patients aged 70 to 89 who were cognitively normal as of October 2004, 85% had at…

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Editor's Note Analyzing data from the National Cancer Data Base, researchers found that rectal cancer patients who had surgery at precisely 8 weeks (56 days) after the end of combined chemoradiotherapy had the best overall survival and successful removal of their residual tumors. This 6-year study of nearly 12,000 patients…

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