Patient Safety & Outcomes

The Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services ordered five state-run psychiatric hospitals to halt admissions because of staffing and safety concerns, according to The Progress-Index. 

The American College of Surgeons has created a standardized method to measure and improve surgical quality in hospitals, the organization said July 12. 

Only 1 in 10 U.S. hospitals offer a last-resort therapy for severely ill COVID-19 patients, a shortage that has forced providers to make difficult decisions about who should receive it, The New York Times reported July 12.

A 90-year-old woman in Belgium died after a simultaneous infection with both the alpha and beta COVID-19 variants, according to a case report presented July 10 at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. 

Research teams have identified more than a dozen genetic variants statistically associated with a person's susceptibility to COVID-19 and their chances of developing severe infection, according to an analysis published July 8 in Nature..

COVID-19 case surges at the most-strained hospitals in spring and summer 2020 may have led to nearly 6,000 inpatient deaths, according to research published July 6 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

COVID-19 is setting the stage for tremendous strain on American health insurance as scientists uncover more of the long-term debilitations associated with the virus.

Physicians have anecdotally reported that some male patients experience erectile dysfunction after a bout with COVID-19, The Los Angeles Times reported July 6. 

Surgeons at UC San Diego Health performed San Diego County's first transplant surgery with lungs donated after cardiac death in June.

The Massachusetts Task Force on Pulmonary Hypertension is asking the state to add all residents to the organ donor list unless they opt out, WBUR reported July 5.