Editor's Note Boston Scientific Corporation is recalling RotaWire Elite core wires because they may crack and separate from the rest of the Rotablator Rotational Atherectomy System and cause serious injury such as tamponade, myocardial infarction, and migration of wire fragments, the Food and Drug Administration reported November 27. Boston Scientific…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that it will reprocess ICD-10 claims with National Coverage Determination and Local Coverage Determination errors automatically and at no cost to providers. CMS is also waiting to reprocess some claims with errors resulting from Local Coverage Determinations until Medicare…

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Editor's Note Electronic health record (EHR) adoption has increased since 2010, but small and rural hospitals need strategies to address financial challenges now that penalties for lack of adoption have begun, this study finds. Using 2008-2014 national data, researchers found that 75% of hospitals have adopted at least a basic…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission summarizes sentinel event-related data reported from accredited organizations quarterly and annually. The data (from 2004 through 3Q 2015) demonstrate the need for the Joint Commission and accredited healthcare organizations to continue to address these serious adverse events, the Joint Commission says. Surgery-related events in the…

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Editor's Note In this study, patients with psychiatric disorders (PsDs) requiring psychopharmacological treatments had an increase in postoperative morbidity after fast-track total hip and total knee arthroplasties, regardless of treatment type and preoperative comorbidities. Among PsD patients: Pain, postoperative anemia, and pulmonary complications were the most frequent causes of length…

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Editor's Note This analysis of data from the National Anesthesia Clinical Outcomes Registry found several factors independently associated with increased perioperative mortality (within 48 hours of anesthesia induction): Increasing American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status Emergency case status Cases beginning between 4:00 pm and 6:59 am Patient age less than…

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Editor's Note This study from Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, found a significant relationship between OR door openings and room pressure. The OR door was opened, on average, once every 2.5 minutes of surgery. For 77 of 191 knee and hip arthroplasties, the doors were open long enough for…

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Editor's Note The US Department of Health & Human Services Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released its 2016 Work Plan announcing new initiatives for ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs), the ASCA News Digest reports. The initiatives include: Review the appropriateness of Medicare’s methodology for setting ASC payment rates. Revitalize outdated…

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Editor's Note In a survey by Himagine Solutions, large hospitals reported a 30% to 45% reduction in productivity for inpatients and a 20% to 40% reduction for outpatients since implementation of the ICD-10 codes, Healthcare Informatics reports. Though loss in productivity can mean a disruption to the revenue cycle, one…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on November 17 released its annual report on America’s Hospitals: Improving Quality and Safety, which summarizes data on 49 accountability measures reported by more than 3,300 accredited hospitals. For the first time, acute care hospitals were required to meet program criteria in six sets—an increase…

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