Editor's Note Early readmissions (within 7 days of discharge) were more likely to be preventable and amenable to hospital-based interventions, and late readmissions (8 to 30 days after discharge) were less likely to be preventable and more amenable to ambulatory and home-based interventions, this study finds. In this study of…

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Editor's Note Inadequate functional health literacy (FHL) in ambulatory surgery patients was associated with poorer postoperative recovery and a lower quality of life in this study. Of 704 patients undergoing ambulatory surgery who were surveyed, 427 (60.7%) reported sufficient FHL, 223 (31.7%) said problematic FHL, and 54 (7.7%) had inadequate…

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Editor's Note Nearly a third of patients used none of the opioids prescribed to them after surgery, finds this study presented by Mayo Clinic researchers April 19 at the American Surgical Association annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona. This survey of 1,907 patients who had 25 common surgical procedures at three…

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Editor's Note In patients having noncardiac surgery who develop a perioperative acute myocardial infarction (AMI), about one in three died in-hospital or were readmitted within 30 days of discharge, finds this study presented March 10 at the 2018 American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session. Among more than 3 million…

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Editor's Note Reductions in hospital length of stay (LOS) for surgical procedures between 2008 and 2014, were not linked to a greater use of postacute care facilities in this study. Researchers studied the relationship between decreased LOS and postacute care using summary measures from the US National Inpatient Sample with…

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Editor's Note Dedicated OR teams for a colorectal Enhanced Recovery after Surgery (ERAS) program at Johns Hopkins Hospital led to anesthesia providers becoming more central to the ERAS network, which increased process measure compliance and improved clinical outcomes in this study. Before the dedicated OR teams were instituted, surgeons were…

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Editor's Note Intermountain Healthcare’s (Salt Lake City, Utah) Partners in Healing program, which involves family members in in-patient care, helped reduce 30-day readmissions after cardiac surgery by 65%, the February 13 Healthcare Finance reports. The program enables family members to help with basic care, which in turn prepares them for…

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Editor's Note Implementation of an enhanced recovery pathway (ERP) for colorectal surgical patients substantially reduced length of stay, total hospital costs, and direct pharmacy costs without increasing complications or readmission rates in this study. The study, which included 160 colorectal patients before ERP was implemented and 146 patients after implementation,…

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Editor's Note A new smartphone app called “WoundCare” is successfully letting patients send images of their surgical wounds to nurses for monitoring, this study finds. The goal of the app, developed by researchers from the Wisconsin Institute of Surgical Outcomes Research, University of Wisconsin, Madison, is earlier detection of surgical…

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Concern about opioid abuse has reached epic proportions in recent months, and healthcare providers have come under increasing pressure to help mitigate the problem. Curbing the tendency to overprescribe pain medications is considered the first, most obvious step, but there are other actions that can also improve patient safety. Nurse…

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