Patient Safety & Outcomes

Saliva tests are not only a less invasive way to screen for COVID-19, but could also be a predictor of which patients will develop severe cases, according to research from the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn. 

Pennsylvania healthcare facilities reported more than 350 wrong-site surgeries between 2015 and 2019, nearly three-fourths of which resulted in patient harm, according to a study published in Patient Safety. 

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has launched a postpartum depression screening program for new mothers, the Lebanon, N.H.-based system said Feb. 16.

Physicians are reporting a significant uptick in cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, a rare inflammatory condition potentially linked to COVID-19, reports The New York Times.

More than one-third of adults in the U.S. have skipped or delayed necessary medical care due to fear of COVID-19 exposure and limited care access during the pandemic, according to research funded by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Inhaled budesonide, a drug commonly used to treat asthma, reduced the risk of urgent care or hospitalization for COVID-19 patients by 90 percent, according to a recent University of Oxford study.   

First responders navigated through a major snowstorm Feb. 10 to transport a pair of donor lungs and three physicians to Cincinnati Children's Medical Center where a young recipient awaited the organ, local NBC affiliate WLWT reported Feb. 11. 

Prescribing blood thinners early on in COVID-19 patients' hospital stays reduced their 30-day mortality risk, according to an EHR-based study published Feb. 11 in The BMJ.

Roche's rheumatoid arthritis drug tocilizumab reduced the risk of death in patients hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in a large U.K. study conducted by the University of Oxford. 

The Joint Commission issued an advisory Feb. 9 on promoting safe, equitable care during the pandemic.