Improving access to genetic testing and counseling for the more than 30 million Americans who are living with a rare disease could improve research and ultimately patient outcomes, according to a study led by Mayo Clinic researchers.

As temperatures climb to dangerous highs in areas of the Southern U.S., including in South Florida, employees from a Miami VA hospital said they are concerned about ongoing issues with the facility's air conditioning system and how the machine's faults are affecting vulnerable patients, CBS News reported June 25.

A May 16 corrective action plan submitted by John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, Calif., a Stanford Medicine affiliate, was denied by the California Department of Health Care Services after finding that "not all of John Muir Health's proposed plans of correction adequately addressed the deficiencies," a spokesperson for the DHCS told Becker's.

While several recent reports have detailed the ongoing struggles of maternal healthcare in the U.S. and worldwide, a June 22 report from HHS says that between 2008 and 2021, in-hospital delivery-related maternal mortality rates improved by 57 percent.

As one of the nation's largest health systems, Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA healthcare facilities extend beyond its home base and into the heart of hurricane territory across Florida, Texas, Louisiana, South Carolina and Georgia. Preparing for the season is routine, unlike the unpredictable storms that pose a threat to patients and clinicians if they make landfall. 

Around half of all surgeons have completed some type of training with augmented reality glasses and 49 percent say AR glasses have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes and reduce errors, according to a report released June 20 from Vuzix, a leading supplier of the technology. 

The American Society of Anesthesiologists and Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation updated recommendations for the timing of elective surgeries and anesthesia for patients after a COVID-19 infection.

The recent death of track and field star Tori Bowie is yet another example of how the U.S. is failing to keep up with other developed nations in terms of maternal health, according to a Wall Street Journal report June 15. Such perilous outcomes are particularly high among Black women, the report said.

Transgender individuals' emergency department visits are 52.4 percent more likely to result in hospital admittance, and they are often more ill when they show up to ERs than their cisgender counterparts, according to researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

A patient suffered a nonfatal self-inflicted firearm injury in HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital in Fort Pierce on June 14, according to local authorities. 

Investigators from the California Department of Public Health unearthed several patient safety concerns at Inglewood, Calif.-based Centinela Hospital Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reported June 15. 

The American Medical Association is expected to release more information on a new policy that encourages physicians to focus less on body mass index when evaluating patients for obesity and overall health, ABC News reported June 14.

Home visits enable providers to identify and address patient needs that might not be addressed in a traditional visit to a healthcare facility, Optum Health's chief nursing officer told NEJM Catalyst in a recent discussion. 

Loss of smell and taste — two of the earliest known, defining COVID-19 symptoms at the pandemic's onset — are now known to be common in 60.5 percent of diagnosed cases, according to new research from Mass General Brigham published June 2 in The Laryngoscope.

The Infectious Diseases Society of America has revised its guidance on clinician treatment of antimicrobial resistant infections.

While wrong site surgeries only happen in about 1 of 112,000 surgical procedures, that one instance is what The Joint Commission hopes to help clinicians prevent. Engaging surgical staff in the Time Out safety procedure prior to first incision is vital, the organization says.

 Two more individuals who contracted Klebsiella pneumoniae at Seattle-based Virginia Mason Medical Center have died, bringing the total to nine patient deaths, the hospital said June 7. 

The longer an elderly patient's emergency department stay is, the more likely they are to develop incident delirium, according to new research from the University of California, Davis. 

Patients who receive organ transplants from donors who died by drowning have higher death rates due to the risk of acquiring invasive mold infections from the donor's exposure to environmental molds.

Minneapolis-based M Health Fairview is implementing a tool from I-PASS Patient Safety Institute to reduce communication breakdowns during patient handoffs.