Monthly Archives: August 2017

Today's Top Story President declares opioid crisis to be "national emergency." MedPage Today reports that President Trump has declared the opioid crisis to be a national emergency. "Building upon the recommendations in the interim report from the President’s Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the Opioid Crisis," a statement from the White House reads, "President Donald J. Trump has instructed his Administration to use all appropriate emergency and other authorities to respond to the crisis caused by the [...]

Today's Top Story CMS withdraws proposal to require accreditors to publicize findings from facility inspections. An article on ProPublica notes that, after consideration of public comments, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has withdrawn a proposal that would have required private healthcare accreditors to publicly release issues noted during medical facility inspections. The agency had proposed to revise the application and re-application process for accrediting organizations by requiring them to post survey reports and plans of [...]

Today's Top Story Study: TXA linked to reduced blood loss for primary RTSA patients. Data from a study published in the August issue of the Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery suggest that patients who undergo primary reverse total shoulder arthroplasty (RTSA) may benefit from the use of tranexamic acid (TXA). The authors conducted a prospective, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial of 102 patients undergoing primary RTSA who received either intravenous TXA (n = 53) or placebo (n = [...]

Today's Top Story CMS issues final rule on 2018 Medicare Inpatient IPPS. The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued the FY 2018 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System final rule, which updates 2018 Medicare payment and policies when patients are discharged from hospitals. Among other things, the final rule: Increases the amount of uncompensated care payments made to acute care hospitals by $800 million, raising the total [...]

Today's Top Story Study: How common is myocardial ischemia after orthopaedic surgery? A study published online in HSS Journal examines rates of myocardial ischemia following orthopaedic surgery. The authors reviewed data on 10,627 inpatient orthopaedic procedures performed at a single center and identified 805 patients as at risk for postoperative myocardial ischemia. Of those patients, they found that 20.6 percent (166 of 805) of the patients had elevated serum cTnI levels (defined as cTnI >0.02 ng/mL), while 1.2 [...]