Editor's Note The Joint Commission on April 17 announced that it had issued a new Sentinel Event Alert 59: Physical and verbal violence against healthcare workers. The Joint Commission issued the alert during Workplace Violence Awareness Month to help healthcare workers in hospitals and other healthcare settings recognize violence from…

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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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According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 2 million Americans have a prescription-related opioid use disorder, and 46 people die from a prescription opioid-related overdose every day—more than a fourfold increase since 1999. Statistics like these are in the news nearly every day, and there is…

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OR Manager, Inc., and ECRI Institute have joined in a collaboration to bring OR Manager readers periodic articles on topics such as medical technology management and procurement, risk management, and patient safety. ECRI Institute is an independent nonprofit that researches the best approaches to improving patient care. Opioids are the…

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Editor's Note In this study, 30-day complications rates increased after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned against the use of power morcellation in women undergoing hysterectomy for benign gynecologic indications. In a cohort of 75,487 women who had hysterectomies, statistically and clinically significant increases in major (1.9% to 2.4%)…

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Editor's Note Though still underused, this study found civilian prehospital tourniquet application tied to a six-fold reduction in mortality in peripheral vascular injuries. The Texas Tourniquet Study Group analyzed 1,026 patients with vascular injuries of the arms or legs admitted to 11 Level I trauma centers in Texas from 2011…

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Editor's Note Joint Commission president Mark R. Chassin, MD, FACP, says he doesn’t want healthcare organizations to just imagine a day of zero harm, he wants them to achieve it, the Joint Commission announced on April 4. Dr Chassin talked about “Leading the Way to Zero” in an article for…

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Editor's Note Movement in the OR is associated with microbial load, this study finds. Researchers determined areas in the OR with high and low numbers of people in transit and placed air samplers and settle plates in representative locations during 21 surgical procedures, in four ORs, during two seasons of…

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Editor's Note One-year mortality after contemporary laparoscopic bariatric surgery is low at <0.25%, which is much lower than previously reported, this study finds. Of 158,606 bariatric procedures analyzed between 2008 and 2012, the 30-day and 1-year mortality rates, respectively were: 0.13% and 0.23% for laparoscopic Roux-en-Y bypass (LRYGB) 0.06% and…

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Editor's Note Changes in gene expression in intestinal tissue of patients after Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery explain and predict blood glucose improvement and body weight loss, finds this study presented March 18 at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in Chicago. The findings are based on the first 19 patients;…

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