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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Editor's Note With the demand for travel nurses rising significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, some states are proposing measures to control what staffing agencies can charge healthcare facilities that use the temporary staff, the March 17 Kaiser Health News reports. Among 11 states proposing regulations: Missouri is calling for felony…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 16 updated its list of COVID-19 medical device shortages to reflect changes in estimated shortage durations during the public health emergency. These include: Radiological devices General plastic surgery devices Cardiac diagnostic and monitoring products General ICU/hospital products Specimen collection, testing…

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