This month has been a busy one in terms of surgical discovery, regulatory updates and patient safety findings. The following are nine surgical updates published on Becker's ASC Review in the past month.
Clinical
1. Immune activity: Can it predict surgical recovery times? The activity level of a subset of immune cells is a strong predictor of how quickly surgery patients bounce back from postsurgical fatigue and pain, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
2. Retained surgical items due to teams, not individuals, study finds. Surgical item retention is most often due to team, rather than individual, errors, according to a recent study, which found team errors or safety omissions to be at fault for RSIs 70 percent of the time, compared to 10 percent of the time for individual errors.
3. Morcellator still popular, despite FDA's cautions over cancer. While the Food and Drug Administration issued an April warning about the risk of spreading undetected cancer through morcellation, some physicians and practices continue to use the device. Those who do say they don't believe the risk is a great as the government has reported.
4. Which item is most often left inside a surgical patient? The item most often left inside surgical patients is the surgical sponge, often difficult to see once soaked in blood and pushed inside of a body cavity, according to a recent study.
5. Study suggests digital messaging system can help patients prevent SSIs. Using electronic reminders like text messages, emails and voicemails can help patients adhere to pre-surgery recommendations and thus reduce the risk of surgical site infections, according to a study.
Legal
6. DEA announces drug-return program in hopes of controlling opioids, other prescription meds. The Drug Enforcement Administration, concerned over increasing rates of prescription drug abuse, announced a consumer program for returning unused prescription drugs to pharmacies, to begin in October.
7. Hydrocodone rules get tougher as DEA ups to Schedule II. A decade after the beginning of formal debate over regulation of hydrocodone, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has issued a final rule on classification of hydrocodone combination products, moving the drug combination from a Schedule III to a Schedule II classification. The new rule is to take effect Oct. 6, and the American Medical Association has released a factsheet to help physicians understand and comply with the new rule.
Administrative
8. Surgeons, anesthesiologists have best-paying jobs of 2014. Which American jobs pay the most? The answers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, are surgery and anesthesiology. According to the bureau, anesthesiologists earn an average salary of $235,070 per year, and surgeons earn an average of $233,150 per year.
9. AHRQ's ASC safety program enrollment now open. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Safety Program for Ambulatory Surgery announced it is accepting enrollment for Cohort 4 of the program, which will launch Sept. 29.
More articles on turnarounds:
New England Baptist Hospital ASC turns 1
Immune activity: Can it predict surgical recovery times?
5 recent ASC industry leadership moves
Clinical
1. Immune activity: Can it predict surgical recovery times? The activity level of a subset of immune cells is a strong predictor of how quickly surgery patients bounce back from postsurgical fatigue and pain, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine.
2. Retained surgical items due to teams, not individuals, study finds. Surgical item retention is most often due to team, rather than individual, errors, according to a recent study, which found team errors or safety omissions to be at fault for RSIs 70 percent of the time, compared to 10 percent of the time for individual errors.
3. Morcellator still popular, despite FDA's cautions over cancer. While the Food and Drug Administration issued an April warning about the risk of spreading undetected cancer through morcellation, some physicians and practices continue to use the device. Those who do say they don't believe the risk is a great as the government has reported.
4. Which item is most often left inside a surgical patient? The item most often left inside surgical patients is the surgical sponge, often difficult to see once soaked in blood and pushed inside of a body cavity, according to a recent study.
5. Study suggests digital messaging system can help patients prevent SSIs. Using electronic reminders like text messages, emails and voicemails can help patients adhere to pre-surgery recommendations and thus reduce the risk of surgical site infections, according to a study.
Legal
6. DEA announces drug-return program in hopes of controlling opioids, other prescription meds. The Drug Enforcement Administration, concerned over increasing rates of prescription drug abuse, announced a consumer program for returning unused prescription drugs to pharmacies, to begin in October.
7. Hydrocodone rules get tougher as DEA ups to Schedule II. A decade after the beginning of formal debate over regulation of hydrocodone, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has issued a final rule on classification of hydrocodone combination products, moving the drug combination from a Schedule III to a Schedule II classification. The new rule is to take effect Oct. 6, and the American Medical Association has released a factsheet to help physicians understand and comply with the new rule.
Administrative
8. Surgeons, anesthesiologists have best-paying jobs of 2014. Which American jobs pay the most? The answers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, are surgery and anesthesiology. According to the bureau, anesthesiologists earn an average salary of $235,070 per year, and surgeons earn an average of $233,150 per year.
9. AHRQ's ASC safety program enrollment now open. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's Safety Program for Ambulatory Surgery announced it is accepting enrollment for Cohort 4 of the program, which will launch Sept. 29.
More articles on turnarounds:
New England Baptist Hospital ASC turns 1
Immune activity: Can it predict surgical recovery times?
5 recent ASC industry leadership moves