Editor's Note This study led by researchers from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that federal actions taken to expand telehealth use for Medicare patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) and to facilitate provision of medications for OUD (MOUD) were associated…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on March 29, updated its COVID-19 vaccination guidelines to say that one dose of the bivalent booster is all that is recommended at this time, even for those who were last vaccinated more than 6 months ago. The CDC notes…

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Editor's Note The World Health Organization, on March 28, announced the revision of it’s guidance for prioritizing the use of COVID-19 vaccines after the meeting of its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE). The guidance was revised to reflect that much of the population has either been vaccinated…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Diseas Control and Prevention issued an alert that infections from the fungus Candida auris are increasing, according to a March 23 report from Michigan Medicine. Highlights from the report include: Patients in nursing facilities who have ventilator-associated infections are at increased risk, and ventilators have…

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Editor's Note This German study finds that expectations and prior experiences were associated with increased adverse effect reports in individuals receiving their second COVID-19 vaccinations. Researchers collected data from 1,678 individuals receiving Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines. Severe adverse effect reports were higher in those: expecting a lower benefit…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on March 22, announced that it is seeking input to a survey on the implementation and utilization of electronic clinical quality measures (eCQMs) to better assess the impact of prospective changes to data submission practices. This applies, in particular, to a healthcare organization’s readiness in…

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Editor's Note The FDA on March 15 issued its third warning letter to endoscope manufacturer Olympus Medical, following a manufacturing site inspection and 160 complaints of device failure, as reported by Beckers. The warning letter comes after a Tokyo, Japan facility inspection, where the Single-Use Distal Covers for Duodenoscopes and…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on March 22, announced that it is seeking comments on proposed new requirements to address environmental sustainability for the hospital and critical access hospital programs. The aim of the proposed new Leadership (LD) Standard LD.05.01.01 is to help facilities minimize their carbon footprints as they…

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Editor's Note The American College of Surgeons (ACS) and Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS), on March 23, announced the launch of a National Quality Verification Program for Vascular Care (Vascular-VP). Vascular-VP helps participating hospitals improve outcomes and deliver the best treatment for patients having inpatient vascular surgical and interventional procedures.…

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Editor's Note Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show 1,706 COVID-19 deaths for the week ending March 15, the lowest number since March 25, 2020, according to the March 20 US News & World Report. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations also continue to drop, with weekly infections at their lowest…

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