Editor's Note Sweeping layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have gutted the agency’s ability to track overdoses, injuries, and violent deaths, Axios October 15 reports. The National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, once a cornerstone of public health surveillance, now operates with roughly one-third of…

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Editor's Note Hospitals that provide surgical care are closing faster than new ones are opening, deepening inequities in access to surgery for socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, American College of Surgeons October 3 reports. Closures not only disrupt care, but also deter many from seeking surgery altogether. Increased travel burdens and difficulty…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has updated its immunization schedules to emphasize individual-based decision-making for COVID-19 vaccination and to recommend that toddlers receive a standalone varicella (chickenpox) vaccine rather than the combined measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella (MMRV) shot, a CDC October 6 release reports.…

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Editor's Note Following yesterday’s update on the impact of the federal government shutdown on telehealth and Affordable Care Act disruptions, the shutdown is also straining military health systems, biomedical research, and disease prevention programs, creating ripple effects for patient care and surgical innovation, Politico October 1 reports. While Medicare, Medicaid,…

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Editor's Note A federal shutdown has halted critical healthcare programs, disrupted Medicare telehealth and hospital-at-home coverage, and escalated partisan conflict over the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Medicaid, multiple outlets report, including HealthLeaders October 1 and KFF Health News. The budget impasse reportedly is leaving both patients and providers in…

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Editor's Note NDM-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales are climbing fast and straining treatment choices, according to a September 23 release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The agency warns NDM-CRE infections rose more than 460% in the US from 2019 to…

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Roughly 41,000 surgical procedures happen in the US every day. Each one depends on surgical technologists (STs), the professionals who prepare the OR, hand off instruments, and ensure a sterile environment to prevent infections that affect up to 3% of all patients. The profession’s importance is reflected in AORN’s recommended…

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Editor's Note A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to restore health-related webpages and datasets removed under a January executive order, according to a July 29 article in Medscape. The ruling follows a lawsuit by Doctors for America and the city and county of San Francisco, which argued that…

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Vaccine health has been dominating the news amid ongoing measles and whooping cough outbreaks and high influenza activity last season. It is also on the minds of The Joint Commission surveyors, as the organization has updated infection control standards that took effect in July 2024 for hospitals and critical access…

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Editor's Note The Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2026 budget calls for slashing the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) discretionary budget by $32 billion, a nearly 25% cut that brings the total to $95 billion. Fierce Healthcare reported the news June 2.  Although many of the proposed cuts…

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