Physician survey illuminates negative impact of prior authorization
Editor's Note The American Medical Association (AMA) annual, nationwide prior authorization survey reveals that over 90% of physicians believe prior authorization negatively impacts patient clinical outcomes. “More telling,” AMA reported July 17, is the fact that 78% of physicians report that this process “sometimes or often” leads to patients abandoning…
One expert concerned over drug shortages record high
Editor's Note Erin Fox, senior pharmacy director at University of Utah Health who has been monitoring drug shortages for over 20 years, spoke to AP News in June of her concerns. Currently, the situation is worse than ever, with total active shortages hitting an all-time high of 323 (with 48…
High-flow oxygen deemed safe for pediatric tubeless airway surgery
Editor's Note New findings show that compared to standard anesthetic methods, a new high-flow oxygen technique is just as safe as during tubeless upper airway surgery in children. Published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, the University of Queensland research-- the High-Flow Oxygen for Children's Airway Surgery (HAMSTER) trial—was the focus of…
Risks of animal-to-human disease jump remain high despite pandemic lessons
Editor's Note New findings highlight an urgent need to improve preventive measures against animal-borne diseases jumping to humans and potentially causing another global pandemic, US Today reported on July 21. The article details a study from Harvard Law School and New York University that examined animal-human interactions in 15 countries,…
Mass Brigham cancels surgeries amid worldwide tech outage
Editor's Note A global Microsoft server outage disrupting critical services from airline operations to banking is also having a significant impact on healthcare, according to multiple news reports. On example is a Friday, July 19 report from CBS News reporting that Mass General Brigham, the largest health care system in…
US News & World Report updates ‘Best Hospital’ ranking methodology
Editor's Note The latest "Best Hospitals" rankings from U.S. News & World Report have been released with significant updates to methodology in response to recent controversies. MedPage Today reported the news July 16. Among the chief changes this year is the inclusion of Medicare Advantage data in the rankings, a…
FDA: Ventilator death, injury reports lower than initially reported
Editor's Note: Problems with Philips’ BiPap V30, BiPAP A30, BiPAP A40 ventilators resulted in only 7 recorded deaths and 10 injuries—far fewer than the 65 deaths and 952 injuries initially reported by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In a July 10 update to the class 1 recall—the most…
Hemodynamic stability, less intraop hypotension risk with remimazolam in outpatient IR procedures
Editor's Note New research indicates the anesthetic combination of remimazolam and fentanyl provides optimal hemodynamic stability for patients undergoing short outpatient interventional radiology (IR) procedures, Anesthesiology News July 16 reports. This study, presented at the 2024 annual meeting of the Society for Ambulatory Anesthesia, compared common anesthetic combinations at a…
FDA announces Class 1 recalls of ventilator, eye injection kits
Editor's Note The US Food & Drug Administration has designated recalls of Baxter’s Life2000 Ventilator and the I-Pack Injection Kit from Bausch + Lomb and subsidiary Synergetics Inc. as Class 1, the most severe category indicating serious risk of injury or death. According to FDA’s July 15 announcement, the ventilator…
Trump record, Republican National Convention hint at GOP healthcare policy priorities
Editor's Note As the Republican National Convention meets in Milwaukee to nominate Donald Trump, the party is not expected to unveil a detailed healthcare platform. However, a July 15 report in Modern Healthcare covers what plans and past records reveal about the potential direction of health policy under a GOP…
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- Low-income patients billed despite hospital tax breaks
- Report: Global nurse shortage widens inequities, fuels migration risks
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