Hospitals in South Carolina that implemented a 19-point checklist for surgeons and the operating room team saw a 22 percent reduction in post-surgical deaths, according to a study due to be published in the August issue of Annals of Surgery.

Located more than 1,400 pages into the regulation, the provision means CMS would require the private health care accreditors it approves, such as the Joint Commission, to publicly detail problems they find during what have been confidential inspections of hospitals and other medical facilities, as well as the corrective actions taken afterward. 

A new optional certification is being developed by the Joint Commission for hospitals which “have the capability of providing high-quality endovascular thrombectomy for patients with ischemic stroke.”

Sovereign Health, a national behavioral health system, surpassed the national average performance of 50 other organizations across the country, according to data by McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate.

Ten infants being treated at UC Irvine Medical Center’s neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) have been infected with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, over the course of eight months, but the hospital did not report the outbreak to patients preparing to deliver babies at the facility.

Only 10 hospitals were given failing grades in the spring 2017 edition of the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade report, though “C” grades remained the most common and four states had no hospitals earning top marks. 

Kimberly-Clark Corporation, known for its Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers, has been hit with a $454 million jury verdict over a lawsuit claiming a former subsidiary misled buyers about the impermeability of its MicroCool surgical gowns.

Hospitals in CMS’s Inpatient Quality Reporting, Outpatient Quality Reporting and Prospective Payment System-Exempt Cancer Hospital Quality Reporting programs can take an early look at the star rating and quality data before the public gets to see it later this year.