Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on November 15 announced that it had cleared for marketing in the US the first duodenoscope with a sterile, disposable elevator component. The clearance of the Pentax Medical Video ED34-i10T2 duodenoscope represents a major step toward lowering the risk of infection in…

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In the never-ending quest to improve patient care, we are always seeking better ways to process medical devices. Many leading experts now recommend transitioning from high-level disinfection (HLD) to sterilization for semicritical items. Semicritical items are instruments or objects that contact mucous membranes or nonintact skin of a patient, but…

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Editor's Note Infection after surgery during postoperative days 0 to 30 is significantly associated with long-term infection and mortality, this study finds. In this analysis of 659,486 patients from the Veterans Health Administration, 3.6% had a 30-day infection, 6.6% had a long-term infection, and 3.8% died during follow-up. At any…

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Editor's Note The use of long-sleeved disposable OR jackets as recommended by AORN is not associated with reductions in surgical site infections (SSIs) and presents a fiscal burden, this study finds. In this analysis of 60,009 patients in 12 hospitals in a large multicenter health organization during a 55 month…

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Editor's Note An Enhanced Recovery Pathway (ERP) created by the Mayo Clinic’s colorectal surgery service a decade ago has now been adopted by other surgical services in seven medical centers that are members of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, the October 15 Harvard Business Review reports. The ability of each…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission announced on October 23 that laminated posters and badge buddies on the 2020 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) for hospitals are now available for purchase. Areas covered by the NPSGs include: Patient identification Infection prevention Patient safety risks Safe surgery. The posters and badge buddies…

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Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on October 18 released an update to its “Guideline for infection control in healthcare personnel, 1998.” The updated document, “Infection Control in Healthcare Personnel: Infrastructure and Routine Practices for Occupational Infection Prevention and Control Services (2019),” applies to a broader range…

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Editor's Note Using machine learning on electronic health record (EHR) postoperative data linked to the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) outcomes data, researchers developed a model with 163 predictors of postoperative complications at the University of Colorado Hospital. Of 6,840 patients analyzed with the…

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Editor's Note Social risk factors were inconsistently associated with surgical site infection (SSI) rates after colectomy or abdominal hysterectomy in this study. In this analysis of 149,741 patients, Medicaid status (a marker for poverty) and living in a low-income zip code were linked to higher SSI rates after colectomy. For…

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Editor's Note This national survey of surgical residents found that needlesticks occur frequently, many events are not reported, and numerous reporting barriers exist. Of 7,395 respondents from all 260 general surgery residency programs, 27.7% noted experiencing a needlestick in the last 6 months. Most events occurred in the OR (77.5%)…

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