Editor's Note The US News & World Report on June 26 announced the 2018-2019 Best Children’s Hospitals rankings. Ten hospitals earned a place on the Honor Roll, which awards hospitals that deliver exceptionally high quality care across multiple specialties: Boston Children’s Hospital Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center Children’s Hospital of…

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Editor's Note Awake video assisted thoracic surgery (AVATS) performed with local anesthesia and sedation allows for resection of lung cancers previously deemed inoperable because of a patient’s poor pulmonary function, finds this study presented May 23 at the American Thoracic Society International Conference in San Diego. For the study, 246…

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Editor's Note The ECRI Institute on May 17 announced that Boston Medical Center had won the 2018 Health Devices Achievement Award for its patient-centric mobile pulmonary care app. The ICOUGH Recovery app guides patients through the hospitals postoperative pulmonary care protocol, which focuses on: Incentive spirometry Coughing and deep breathing…

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When errors occur, sometimes with devastating consequences, healthcare leaders often perform a root cause analysis (RCA) to prevent a recurrence. Understanding what happened is an important step in the recovery process. It’s also important to realize the effect of a sentinel event on healthcare providers—those “second victims” who find themselves…

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Can hospital leaders and surgeons partner to reduce opioid use while maintaining high patient satisfaction scores? Leaders at OSS Orthopaedic Hospital in York, Pennsylvania, answer that question with a yes. Meghan McNelly, PharmD, MHA, FACHE, who was director of pharmacy at OSS when the opioid-reduction project started, says that from…

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Editor's Note Surgeons at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, completed the first successful penis transplantation in the US in a patient who had a subtotal penectomy for penile cancer. Operative reinterventions were needed on postoperative days 2 and 3 for hematoma evacuation and skin eschar debridement. At 3 weeks, no…

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Editor's Note NewYork-Presbyterian on April 24 announced the opening of the David H. Koch Center, a world-class ambulatory care center that provides a seamless patient experience from diagnosis to treatment. The approximately 749,000 square foot facility includes services such as outpatient surgery, interventional radiology, diagnostic imaging, and infusion services as…

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Editor's Note A Black Book market survey found that 92% of patients younger than 40 expressed dissatisfaction if their providers did not offer them complete medical records, and 85% wanted more telehealth options, the April 23 Healthcare Informatics reports. A total of 88% of respondents blamed the hospital systems directly…

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The government and insurance companies have imposed increasing penalties on healthcare facilities in recent years for readmissions. And with good reason: High readmission rates greatly increase costs and sometimes signal poor patient safety practices. In 2015, roughly 2 million patients were readmitted, costing Medicare $27 billion, according to the Centers…

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The OR isn’t exempt from the effects of the opioid crisis. Identifying patients taking opioids is part of OR clinicians’ responsibilities, and they also play an important role in preventing opioid addiction. “We have patients who have opioid use disorder [OUD] and neglect to tell us,” says Mary Jo Steiert,…

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