Clinical impact of rapid influenza PCR in the adult emergency department on patient management, ED length of stay, and nosocomial infection rate.

Background: Seasonal influenza causes significant morbidity and mortality and incurs large economic costs. Influenza like illness is a common presenting concern to Emergency Departments (ED), and optimizing the diagnosis of influenza in the ED has the potential to positively affect patient management and outcomes. Therapeutic guidelines have been established to identify which patients most likely will benefit from anti-viral therapy.

Surgical tray optimization as a simple means to decrease perioperative costs.

Background: Health care spending in the US remains excessively high. Aside from complicated, large-scale efforts at health care cost reduction, there are still relatively simple ways in which individual hospitals can cut unnecessary costs from everyday operations. Inspired by recent publications, our group sought to decrease the costs associated with surgical instrument processing at a large, multihospital academic center.