Editor's Note This study led by the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, examines the longitudinal rates, risk factors, and costs of superficial and deep incisional surgical site infections (SSIs) after primary and revision total knee arthroplasties (TKAs). A total of 26,097 primary TKA patients and 3,663 revision TKA patients were…
Float teams have been a staple of nurse-staffing plans for many years, but they have not been widely used in the operating room. Utah Valley Hospital, a Level II trauma center in Provo, Utah, and part of the Intermountain Healthcare system, has been developing float teams for nearly 2 decades.…
Editor's Note Those who experience anxiety and depression months after a mild case of COVID-19 may have brain changes that affect its function and structure, finds a study that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting in April. The study, by researchers at the University of…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on February 15, announced that it has finalized the process for an automatic data transfer from the American Heart Association’s (AHA’s) Get with the Guidelines—Coronary Artery Disease registry directly into its Certification Measure Information Process tool for the Comprehensive Heart Attack Center certification program. For…
Editor's Note The Joint Commission, on February 15, announced that its Comprehensive Cardiac Center (CCC) Certification program has been fully revised to: reduce redundancy clarify requirements closely align requirements with other Joint Commission cardiac certification programs. The revised requirements will be effective July 1.
Editor's Note North American Partners in Anesthesia’s (NAPA) Anesthesia Risk Alerts (ARA) program provides anesthesia clinicians with novel mitigation strategies to better manage five high-risk scenarios in the perioperative setting. Implemented in April 2019, NAPA’s nationwide healthcare partners have achieved 95% compliance screening for the scenarios and have performed secondary…
Editor's Note This study by researchers from the California VA Palo Alto Health System and Stanford School of Medicine compares trends in the use of robotic surgery for common general surgical procedures among Veterans Health Administration (VHA), community practice, and academic healthcare centers between January 1, 2013, and December 31,…
Editor's Note This study from the University of Pittsburgh finds that telemedicine can be used safely and effectively for bariatric surgical patients’ preoperative care. A total of 1,182 patients (telemedicine visit group, 257 vs in-person visit controls, 925) were included in the analysis. The telemedicine group was found to be…
Editor's Note Asensus Surgical and Google Cloud are collaborating to integrate Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and cloud data into Asensus’ surgical robot platform, the February 14 Mass Device reports. Applying AI capabilities to clinical performance data will enhance accuracy and efficiency as well as help surgeons avoid complications and…
Editor's Note This study from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, finds that network facilities had higher negotiated prices for surgical procedures, and there is wide variability across facilities in and out of hospital networks. A total of 3,195 hospitals were included in the analysis. Among the findings: For 15…