Editor's Note Most Americans do not think healthcare prices and quality are associated and may avoid low-price care, finds this study. Depending on how the question was framed, 58% to 71% of Americans in a nationally representative survey did not associate healthcare prices and quality. A minority did perceive an…

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Editor's Note Patients undergoing minimally invasive mitral valve repair or replacement (mini-MVR) have similar outcomes as patients having traditional open procedures and also experience shorter hospital stays and fewer blood transfusions, finds this study. The study included 1,304 patients, including 425 mini-MVRs. Compared with traditional MVR, Mini-MVR patients had similar…

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Editor's Note Use of an Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) program in total hip and total knee patients reduced length of stay by 1 day in this study. Short term complications and readmission rates were similar for patients in the ERAS program and those managed in a traditional perioperative care…

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Editor's Note Over the next 10 years, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will cost $1.34 trillion, which is $136 billion more than the Congressional Budget Office predicted a year ago, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The hike in costs is mostly a result of higher-than-expected enrollment in the expanded Medicaid…

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Editor's Note ECRI Institute announced on March 17 that is collaborating with the London School of  Economics in a project examining medical device pricing across different countries. Medical devices are estimated to account for 6% to 7% of total health expenditure in the US and European countries, but little is…

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Creating a “Cost Conscious Culture Committee” helped Maine Medical Center (MMC) in Portland shave more than $1.8 million in operating costs from the beginning of 2014 to the end of 2015. Not only that, but during 2015, MMC’s perioperative services leaders were also involved in a $40 million expansion project…

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Results of a recent survey suggest that a great deal of unnecessary product waste could be avoided if OR nurses changed their approach to using absorbable hemostatic agents. The survey, administered electronically to 200 US registered nurses in late 2014, found that 62% of respondents prepared absorbable hemostatic agents before…

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Editor's Note If all total knee replacements were performed at high-volume hospitals, it could save the US healthcare system between $2.5 and $4 billion annually by 2030, finds a study presented March 4 at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. In this study of nearly 90,000…

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Editor's Note Capnographic monitoring during outpatient colonoscopy with moderate sedation increased costs significantly and did not improve patient safety or satisfaction, this study finds. The analysis included 966 patients (465 without and 501 with capnography) who underwent colonoscopy at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston. Patients and nurses reported…

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Hospitals with better nursing work environments and above-average staffing levels were associated with better surgical value (ie, lower mortality with similar costs) in this study, especially for higher-risk patients. Past studies have shown that hospitals with better nursing work environments provide better quality of care, but less is known about…

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