Editor's Note Seattle Children's Hospital is tying ambient AI return on investment (ROI) to real money by targeting burnout, retention, and documentation burden to avoid multimillion-dollar turnover costs and lift data quality, HealthLeaders October 21 reports. Per the outlet, Seattle Children’s is expanding Abridge’s ambient AI across 18 pediatric specialties…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission has made nurse staffing a national benchmark for hospital accreditation, formally recognizing it as a core measure of patient safety and care quality, Nurse.org October 13 reports. For the first time, hospitals must meet specific staffing standards to earn or maintain accreditation. Under the new…

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Editor's Note The nursing shortage in California is deepening, with RN vacancies projected to grow from 3.7% in 2024 to 16.7% by 2033, HealthLeaders and KFF Health News October 8 report. The researchers cite inadequate training and retention pipelines, while nurses on the front lines say mismanagement, understaffing, and profit…

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Editor's Note A malpractice case involving a 69-year-old man undergoing an endoscopy at an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) spotlights the risks of managing high-comorbidity patients outside a hospital setting. According to a May 13 report in Anesthesiology News, the patient experienced a hypoxic event that led to permanent brain injury…

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Know the law. It could save your patients’ lives and your staff members’ practices. This is the advice of several medical legal experts to OR leaders to prevent lapses in patient protections that risk injury or even death. Beyond ensuring safe surgery and preventing litigation, perioperative nursing experts who advance…

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Editor's Note Healthcare providers, payers, and analytics teams face sweeping ICD-10 changes this fall, with the 2026 code updates taking effect October 1, 2025, Wolters Kluwer July 14 reports. The release includes 614 new codes, 12 invalidations, 642 billability changes, 88 terminology revisions, and the creation of an entirely new…

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For an ambulatory surgery center (ASC), earning accreditation can be more than a mark of excellence. The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC) offers Medicare Deemed Status Accreditation, eliminating the need for separate surveys to certify compliance with the Conditions of Participation (CoPs) required by the Centers for Medicare…

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Editor’s Note: This page is a companion piece to the main article, Emergency preparedness: Identifying essential supplies for unplanned surgical events. While the main article outlines the principles of emergency readiness and supply preparation in the OR, the posts below offer a closer look at two key implementation areas: Supply…

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Editor's Note Regular check-ins and visible leadership can help ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) head off legal trouble before it starts. That is the central message from employment attorney Salvatore Puccio on a recent episode of the Advancing Surgical Care Podcast, Ambulatory Surgery Center News July 23 reports. Puccio, a partner…

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Editor's Note Epic has introduced a free training program to help nurses and medical assistants reduce time spent using electronic health records (EHRs), addressing a key factor contributing to widespread burnout. According to a recent article in Fierce Healthcare, the Nursing SmartUser classes launched during National Nurses Week and aim…

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