Editor's Note This study finds that physicians who use electronic health records (EHRs) have higher rates of burnout and are more likely to be dissatisfied with their jobs because of the amount of time spent completing computerized medical forms. The findings, based on a survey of 6,375 physicians, found that…

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Editor's Note Septicemia was the most expensive condition treated in US hospitals in 2013, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Others in the top 20 most expensive were: osteoarthritis, 2nd complications of device, implant, or graft, 4th complications of surgical procedures or medical care, 13th hip fracture,…

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Editor's Note Medical chart review for surgical site infections (SSIs) that were identified through administrative data is an efficient supplemental SSI surveillance strategy following total hip and knee arthroplasty, this study finds. Of 162 patients with potential SSIs identified by diagnosis or procedure code, 46 (28%) were confirmed as an…

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In this challenging healthcare environment, OR leaders have a fiscal responsibility to help hospitals meet financial goals that contribute to a healthy bottom line. There is no more expensive procedure you can have in the hospital than to spend time in the OR,” says Keith Siddel, PhDc, JD, MBA, CHC.…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on May 4 released comprehensive ambulatory surgery center (ASC) quality data reports compiled through its Ambulatory Surgery Center Quality Reporting (ASCQR) program. Among the data reported are: Quality data code-based measures, such as wrong site, side, patient, procedure, implant Safe…

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Editor's Note An analysis of 8 years of data by Johns Hopkins University researchers finds that more than 250,000 people die annually because of medical errors, which translates to 9.5% of all US deaths each year. The findings make medical errors the third leading cause of death. This surpasses the…

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Editor's Note A Black Book survey found that 87% of financially struggling hospitals regret their decision to replace their electronic health records (EHRs) systems, the April 29 Healthcare IT News reports. Of those that changed their original EHRs since 2011, 14% are losing inpatient revenue at a pace that wouldn’t…

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Editor's Note Healthcare was the top target for cyberattacks last year, according to an IBM cybersecurity report. Five of the eight largest healthcare security breaches (more than 1 million records compromised) this decade took place during the first 6 months of 2015. More than 100 million healthcare records were compromised…

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Editor's Note Nearly half of patient face-to-face contacts with health care providers, such as checkups, emergency department visits, and hospital admissions, were missing from electronic health records (EHRs) in this study. The problem is caused by the inability of software systems to talk to each other. Because of the 2009 Health…

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Editor's Note This study was designed to understand nurses’ perceptions of using an electronic health record (EHR) at the point of care. At 1 year after EHR adoption, the nurses said: it did not improve patient care the learning curve was steep they had lower confidence using the EHR than…

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