NEWS
New research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that people who spend a lot of time sitting may be up to 40% more likely to die from any cause, compared to people who don't sit as long. Compared to people who spent less than four hours per day sitting, the odds of dying were:
A 2-part paper in the Journal of Patient Safety, written by a group of aviators is a call to action to adopt readily available and transferable safety innovations. These safety innovations, paid for by taxpayers, made the airline industry one of the safest in the world. These innovations could save patient's lives and save facilities money. Let's see how this call to action is received.
A hospital stay carries a 5.5% risk of an adverse drug reaction, 17.6% risk of infection, and 3.1% risk of ulcer for an average episode, and each additional night in hospital increases the risk by 0.5% for adverse drug reactions, 1.6% for infections, and 0.5% for ulcers. Source: Medical Care
The journal, Spine published an article calling for more research for early management of whiplash injuries citing no improvement in recovery rates.
A study in Neurosurgery supported the recent guideline change calling for monitoring of brain oxygenation for those people with severe head injuries. Brain hypoxia was shown to adversely affect TBI independent of other factors. How does brain hypoxia affect mild TBI?
Most emergent intubations in the emergency department occur before all the facts can be determined. An article recently published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine discusses preoxygenation and peri-intubation oxygenation techniques to minimize risk of critical hypoxia.
Work groups from the American Dietetic Association and American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition are developing new definitions and diagnostic criteria for malnutrition in adults. Concepts serving as a foundation for these new definitions and criteria include starvation-related malnutrition, chronic disease-related malnutrition and acute disease-related malnutrition. These changes will impact all areas of healthcare, i.e. acute care, home care, long term care, etc
Depression is one of the most common diagnoses in the U.S. Consequently, many women become pregnant while undergoing antidepressant treatment. This brings up the question as to whether they should continue antidepressant medication. Stopping an antidepressant can bring on major depressive disorder. A study in Epidemiology looks at this issue.
Gallup's annual poll ranking the most trusted profession has consistently shown nurses to be at the top of the list. One of the reasons could be nurses report errors. Up to 40% of the errors occurring in hospitals are reported by nurses. Seems, however, there is a lot of room for improvement. The same report estimated 86% of hospital errors continue to go unreported. Source: Medscape
The February issue of Pediatrics has a study showing high volume hospitals manage complications in pediatric heart surgery patients better than lower volume facilities. Both types of hospitals had similar rates of postop complications. However, the mortality associated with those complications was higher in hospitals that performed fewer than 150 cases per year.
The Archives of Internal Medicine has published a Dutch study showing supplemental oxygen can be harmful to emergency department patients.
