Editor's Note In a probe led by House Representatives Peter Welch (D-VT) and Morgan Griffith (R-VA), some 200 House members have asked the White House to investigate allegedly inflated costs being charged by nurse staffing agencies, according to the January 26 Becker’s Hospital CFO Report. In the investigation request, the…

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Editor's Note In this viewpoint, researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine, note that it is unclear whether cardiovascular complications associated with COVID-19 persist beyond the acute phase of illness and whether a history of COVID-19 warrants any additional preoperative cardiac assessments before having elective surgery. They review the literature…

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Editor's Note Please participate in an important nationwide perioperative survey on surgical smoke evacuation. The purpose of the research, led by Brenda Ulmer MN, RN, CNOR, is to determine evacuation behaviors in hospitals before COVID-19, and then note changes as the virus continued to spread in the US. Ulmer and…

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Editor's Note This study by researchers from New York University School of Medicine finds several factors associated with increased odds of readmission of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In this retrospective cohort analysis of 6,191 adult patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in a New York safety-net hospital system between March 1 and…

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Editor's Note This meta-analysis, led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that the rate of nocebo responses in placebo groups of COVID-19 vaccine trials was substantial. The researchers analyzed adverse event reports for 45,380 COVID-19 vaccine trial participants (22,578 placebo recipients and…

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Editor's Note A recent survey by McKinsey & Company finds that more than 30% of US nurses are thinking of leaving direct patient care for other roles. Reasons cited by nurses for leaving, include: ongoing demands of the COVID-19 pandemic hiring and retention incentives at other workplaces desire for support…

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Editor's Note Incidental COVID-19—when patients are admitted to the hospital for something other than COVID-19 but test positive for the virus during their stay—is a reality for most, if not all, hospitals. However, a Becker’s study finds that the frequency of incidental COVID-19 cases is particularly challenging for hospital staff…

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Editor's Note This study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, finds that Black patients used telemedicine platforms more often than White patients for ambulatory surgical care during Phase 2 of COVID-19. During Phase 1 (March 24 through June 23), there were 347 in-person and 638 virtual…

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Editor's Note On January 19, a federal court dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas opposing the federal vaccine mandate. This came just days after the Supreme Court also ruled to uphold the mandate “to promote and protect patient health and safety.” On January 20, CMS issued updated…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on January 19, released a study showing that in New York and California, both vaccination and prior infection offered protection against COVID-19, but those who had recovered from COVID-19 were less likely than vaccinated individuals to get infected during the Delta…

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