Editor's Note Patients admitted to the hospital for procedures that would not be expected to require admission (ie, low-value procedures) are being harmed, consuming additional hospital resources, and delaying care for patients for whom the services would be appropriate, this Australian study finds. In this analysis of 9,330 episodes of…

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Editor's Note The Joint Commission on March 13 released its sentinel event statistics for 2018, the majority of which were voluntarily reported by an accredited or certified organization. Of the 10 most frequently reported events, falls and unintended retention of a foreign body were at the top with 111 reports…

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Editor's Note No significant difference was found between endoscopic and open vein–graft harvesting in the risk of major adverse cardiac events, in this study. This analysis of 1,150 patients in 16 Veterans Affairs cardiac surgery centers found that during a median follow-up of 2.78 years, the primary outcome of a…

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Editor's Note In this 9-year prospective cohort study from Spain, researchers identified surgical site infection (SSI) risk factors that showed the necessity  to strictly comply with wound decontamination and patient preparation protocols, reduce the length of surgical time, and identify patients requiring comprehensive monitoring. This analysis of 1,969 patients who…

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Editor's Note In patients having coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery, no significant difference was found in the risk of major adverse cardiac events between open and endoscopic vein-graft harvesting procedures, this study finds. In this analysis of 1,150 patients at 16 Veterans Affairs centers over a median follow-up of…

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Editor's Note In this study, researchers developed an algorithm model that accurately identified surgical site infections (SSIs) using independent variables from electronic health record data and outcomes from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP). Researchers fit 3 models to data from patients having surgery at the…

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Editor's Note Wound photography facilitates online postoperative wound assessment for surgical site infections (SSIs) but needs refinement to make sure critical issues aren’t missed, this study finds. A total of 523 surgeons reviewed online clinical vignettes with or without wound photography to diagnose SSIs. The addition of photography did not…

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Editor's Note The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on August 23 issued 16 penalties to 13 hospitals and fines of more than $1 million. Among the penalties issued, four were OR related: OR fire unintended retention of a foreign object (blue towel) wrong site surgery malfunction of a heart-lung…

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Editor's Note This study, which examined the relationship between nursing specialty certification and surgical site infections (SSIs), found that only Magnet status was associated with lower SSI rates. Analyzing data from 69 hospitals, 346 units, and 6,585 RNs, along with SSI data on 22,188 patients after colon and abdominal hysterectomy…

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Editor's Note A Hawaii statewide collaborative for surgical patient safety successfully reduced colorectal surgical site infections (SSIs) and improved patient safety culture, finds this study. Between January 2013 and June 2015, Hawaii’s 15 hospitals implemented the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) in addition…

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