Editor's Note On March 1, the American Hospital Association (AHA) submitted a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee urging Congress to consider and address the challenges the healthcare workforce is currently facing. As healthcare workers enter the third year of the pandemic, AHA likened current challenges to “a…

Read More

Editor's Note Three American hospitals top Newsweek’s annual World’s Best Hospitals list, published on March 2. These hospitals have learned to adapt to new and existing challenges quickly during medicine's 2-year war against COVID-19, Newsweek says. The top three are: Mayo Clinic-Rochester, Rochester, Minnesota Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio Massachusetts General…

Read More

Editor's Note This study by researchers at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, finds that patient treatment at hospitals dedicated to COVID-19 care was associated with lower in-hospital mortality. Of 5,504 patients with COVID-19 analyzed, 2,077 were treated at one of two COVID-19 dedicated hospitals, and 3,427 were treated at other…

Read More

Editor's Note OR Manager recently reported on the new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations on when masks should be worn by the public. According to the new guidelines, the CDC now recommends the general public wear masks only in communities with a "high" level of COVID-19, which…

Read More

Editor's Note The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on February 25, issued new recommendations on when masks should be worn by the public. Under the new guidelines: In communities with “low” or “medium” levels of COVID-19, masks are not recommended for the general public, which is now more…

Read More

Editor's Note This study led by the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, finds substantial changes in the healthcare workforce during years 2020 and 2021 of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the findings: Healthcare employment levels fell from 22.2 million in 2019 to 21.1 million in 2020 (a 5.2% decline), and then…

Read More

Editor's Note This study by Belgium researchers finds that healthcare workers’ (HCWs') fear of COVID-19 and reluctance to work significantly increased between the first phase of the study in May 2020 and the second phase in October 2020. Of 2,661 HCWs analyzed in phase 1 and 2,336 HCWs in phase…

Read More

Editor's Note This study led by researchers at Ascension Health Care, St Louis, finds that COVID-19 was associated with substantial increases in hospital-acquired bloodstream infections, which were largely attributed to COVID-19 infected patients. A total of 1,417,036 admissions in 69 US hospitals were analyzed before (703,556) and during (713,480) the…

Read More

Editor's Note In this study from Switzerland, regular use of public transportation by healthcare workers (HCWs) was not found to affect the risk for acquiring COVID-19. Of 376 HCWs analyzed, 225 used public transportation. By group comparison, HCWs using public transportation did not acquire a significantly greater percentage of COVID-19…

Read More

Editor's Note A USA Today/Ipsos Poll that was released on February 22 and was conducted between February 9 and February 16 found that almost 1 in 4 healthcare workers (HCWs) report they are likely to leave the healthcare field in the near future, Becker’s Hospital Review reports. The poll surveyed…

Read More