Outpatient Care
AAOS provides comments to CMS on payment policy changes
The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons issued formal comments to the CMS on proposed payment policy changes for calendar year 2022, with focuses on the inpatient only list and ongoing cuts to physician reimbursement.
More than 20% of stable outpatients with CAD experience monthly angina
Among stable outpatients with CAD, 21.2% reported experiencing angina at least once monthly, researchers reported.
Two triaging strategies equally safe for facilitating outpatient care of acute PE
New data from the HOME-PE trial support outpatient management of patients with acute pulmonary embolism using two different triaging strategies.
Small, practical steps can improve antibiotic stewardship in the outpatient setting
Although the CDC’s Core Elements of Outpatient Antibiotic Stewardship provide a framework for outpatient antibiotic use, researchers are calling for more practical strategies and tools that are straightforward, highly effective and sustainable in a letter to the editor published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.
Review of antibiotic prescriptions at discharge improves stewardship
Antibiotic prescribing at a small Veterans Affairs hospital improved following the implementation of antibiotic review at discharge, according to study findings.
Income level associated with mental health inequities
More financial, institutional support needed for safe OPAT care
A survey completed by 672 members of the Emerging Infections Network showed that infectious disease clinicians were “highly involved” in outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy, or OPAT, but that only around one-third of respondents reported access to a dedicated OPAT program.
Efficiencies, specialty teams equip hospital outpatient departments for same-day spine surgery
CHICAGO — Although payments are sometimes lower for spine surgery performed at an ASC vs. a hospital outpatient department, a presenter here said the efficiencies and lower risk related to spine surgery performed outpatient in a hospital may make it the preferred treatment setting for many types of spine surgery cases.
UTIs increasingly diagnosed in virtual care setting
The rate of UTIs diagnosed in the outpatient setting increased between 2008 and 2017, especially among older adults and in patients receiving virtual care, researchers reported in Clinical Infectious Diseases.