Editor's Note The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee is asking for a delay of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Stage 3 meaningful-use rules, which providers say are costly and time-consuming. Stage 3 requires providers to send electronic summaries for 50% of patients they refer to other…

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Editor's Note Older women are more likely than older men to have mental decline after general anesthesia, and both men and women had faster declines in mental function and brain volume than those who had no general anesthesia, this study finds. Mental decline was especially severe in women who had…

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Editor's Note The AmericanCollege of Surgeons calls the usefulness of surgeon rating systems released last week by two public interest group websites questionable. The groups use differing methodologies (ie, years of Medicare data reviewed, procedures studied, and rating scales used) to determine their rankings, and a patient visiting both sites…

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Editor's Note A report from Medicare trustees on July 22 projects that the Medicare trust fund will be exhausted in 2030. The report also revealed that recipients of Social Security disability benefits could face steep cuts next year. The fund it expected to run out of money in 2016. Congress…

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Editor's Note A report by Q2 Metrics predicts the US market for spinal implants will reach $6.4 billion by 2024, up from $5 billion this year. The largest product segments include posterior thoracolumbar pedicle screw fixation and traditional anterior cervical plating. There is also strong momentum in hospital and physician…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission is offering a new integrated care certification option that is focused on helping health care organizations improve coordination across the continuum of care. The new certification assesses how well a health care organization integrates information sharing, transitions of care, hand-off communications, and other key activities…

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Editor's Note US News & World Report has posted its honor roll of the 15 best hospitals for 2015 to 2016. Honor roll hospitals scored near the top in at lease six specialties. Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital returned to the top spot this year after being second last year. The…

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Editor's Note The use of hybrid coronary revascularization is safe and effective, with faster recovery and similar outcomes compared to conventional coronary artery bypass grafting, this study finds. The 30-day composite of mortality, myocardial infarction, or stroke was similar for both procedures, as was mortality during a 3-year follow-up period.…

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Editor's Note Baxter International Inc has announced a recall of two lots of 0.9% sodium chloride injection, USP, 50 mL and 100 mL, because of the presence of particulate matter. The lot numbers are P319921 and P327635. The particulate matter was determined to be an insect and was identified as…

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Editor's Note In this study, patients having hip fracture surgery under regional anesthesia had significantly more complications than patients who received general anesthesia. Spinal anesthesia had the highest complication rate (19.6%), followed by general anesthesia (17.9%), and regional nerve blocks (12.6%). After combining regional nerve block and spinal anesthesia patients,…

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