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 More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and healthcare professionals are set to walk off the job on October 14 in what could be one of the largest healthcare strikes in recent history, Nurse.org October 7 reports. The 5-day strike, led by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of…

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Editor's Note The dismantling of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) jeopardizes worker safety nationwide and risks reversing decades of progress, New England Journal of Medicine October 4 reports. In April, sweeping federal workforce reductions eliminated more than 80% of NIOSH staff, closing laboratories and freezing core…

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Editor's Note Two workers at an ambulatory surgery center (ASC) are facing federal charges after allegedly interfering with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest, The Independent July 27 reports. The federal agents reportedly arrested one of the workers and are pursuing the other after both were accused of assaulting…

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One of the most sobering moments in the career of anesthesiologist Cornelius Sullivan, MD, occurred not as a caretaker in the OR, but as a patient in the emergency department. Having been knocked out cold by a low-hanging monitor during a surgical procedure at Boston Children’s Hospital, he had to…

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Editor's Note Research presented at this year’s Digestive Disease Week in May highlights the potential health risks posed by smoke generated during tissue-cutting ablations in gastrointestinal (GI) endoscopy, Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News May 18 reports. Unlike surgeons in ORs, who follow specific regulations to mitigate smoke exposure, GI endoscopy procedures…

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Editor's Note Healthcare safety is moving in the right direction generally, but low perceptions of safety and rising reports of violence against nurses represent critical gaps that leaders should address, according to an April 2 press release on Press Ganey’s “Safety in Healthcare 2024” report. Focused on event reporting, workforce…

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Editor's Note The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), of the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is releasing an innovative, hospital-tested guide aimed at addressing and mitigating healthcare worker burnout, a CDC March 18 press release reports. This initiative is a cornerstone of the Impact…

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Sterile Processing Department (SPD) managers and technicians know a thing or two about pressure. In a recent webinar covering sterile processing basics, Cori L. Ofstead, MSPH, president and CEO of Ofstead & Associates, Inc, and Abby Smart, MPH, research associate, cited the example of a 480-bed hospital that performed 13,650…

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There is movement happening in the world of surgical gowns. It is driven in part by the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought new focus to the need for adequate stockpiles of personal protective equipment (PPE)—and for PPE that works as intended. Staff need to know their gowns incorporate the latest technology…

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