Editor's Note The ECRI Institute on March 12 released its 2018 Top 10 Patient Safety Concerns for Healthcare Organizations. Topping the list is diagnostic errors, followed by opioid safety across the continuum of care. Eighth on the list is device cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization. The list is not representative of…

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Editor's Note Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) found that emergency department (ED) visits for opioid overdoses increased 29.7% from July 2016 to September 2017, according to the March 9 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Every demographic group and all US regions saw increases, but the…

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Editor's Note Surgical readmission rates have declined in the past decade, and rates of decline increased during the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) period, this study finds. Between 2005 and 2014, rates of readmission across 8 targeted procedures declined from 12.2% to 8.6%. Before the Affordable Care Act, rates of readmission…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 9 issued warning letters to all three duodenoscope manufacturers for failing to comply with federal requirements to conduct postmarket surveillance studies to assess the effectiveness of reprocessing their devices. Olympus failed to start data collection, and Pentax and Fujifilm failed…

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Editor's Note Neurocognitive dysfunction is highly prevalent in total joint candidates and predisposes patients to suboptimal postoperative outcomes including increased ICU admissions and prolonged rehabilitation, this study finds. The researchers found that nearly 54% of 99 patients analyzed had neurocognitive dysfunction, which correlated with age more than 60 years, body…

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Editor's Note The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on March 6 announced the recall by Sagent Pharmaceuticals (Schaumburg, Illinois) of 10 lots of methylprednisolone sodium succinate for injection, USP, 40 mg, 125 mg, and 1 g. The recall was initiated because of the discovery of high out of specification impurity…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers used patient-reported outcome (PRO) scores from 15 hospitals in Washington to create a clinical prediction model for spine surgery patients that explains most of the variability in pain reduction and functional improvement after surgery. The researchers found that after lumbar fusion surgery: 58.0% had…

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Editor's Note Opioids were no better than nonopioid medications at improving pain that interfered with activities such as walking, work, and sleep in patients with moderate to severe chronic back pain or hip or knee osteoarthritis pain, in this study. In 240 patients who were followed for 12 months, the…

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Editor's Note The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on March 5 announced the recall by Hospira (Lake Forest, Illinois) of three lots of hydromorphone HCL injection, USP Cll 10 mg/mL, 1 mL in 2 mL single dose vials. The recall was initiated because units from these lots may be empty…

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Editor's Note In this study led by Martin A. Makary, MD, MPH, professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, minimally invasive surgery (MIS) was associated with better outcomes than open procedures in the Medicare population. Of 233,984 Medicare patients who had one of seven common surgical…

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