Telehealth's New Horizon: Providing Smart Hospital-Level Care in the Home.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, medical providers have expanded telehealth into daily practice, with many medical and behavioral health care visits provided remotely over video or through phone. The telehealth market was already facilitating home health care with increasing levels of sophistication before COVID-19. Among the emerging telehealth practices, telephysical therapy; teleneurology; telemental health; chronic care management of congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes; home hospice; home mechanical ventilation; and home dialysis are some of the most prominent.

Comparison between epidural and opioid analgesia for infants undergoing major abdominal surgery.

Background: Epidural analgesia is considered optimal for postoperative pain management after major abdominal surgery. The potential to decrease anesthetic and opioid exposure is particularly desirable for infants, given their vulnerability to respiratory depression and concern for anesthetic neurotoxicity. We reviewed our experience with infants undergoing major abdominal surgery to determine if epidural catheter use decreased anesthetic and opioid exposure and improved postoperative analgesia.

Case series of 331 cases of sugammadex compared to neostigmine in patients under 2 years of age.

Background: Sugammadex is a novel neuromuscular blockade reversal agent approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2015, but little literature exists for patients less than 2 years of age.

Aims: The aims of this study were to: describe a cohort of patients 2 years old and younger who received sugammadex; describe any adverse effects of sugammadex in this age group; compare time from end of surgery to out of operating room for sugammadex versus neostigmine; compare time between last dose of neuromuscular blocking drug and reversal; and use train-of-four data to assess reversal.

Methods: Chart review of the medical record and the anesthesia information system captured all patients in this age cohort who received sugammadex or neostigmine over a two-year period.

Variability in opioid prescribing for children undergoing ambulatory surgery in the United States.

Study Objective: We attempted to describe the opioid prescribing patterns for ambulatory pediatric surgery in the United States from 2007 to 2014.

Design: Retrospective database review.

Setting: Operating room ambulatory encounters as determined by the Truven Health Marketscan Commercial Claims and Encounters database.

Outcomes of a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for medication errors in pediatric anesthesia.

The Institute of Medicine has called for development of strategies to prevent medication errors, which are one important cause of preventable harm. Although the field of anesthesiology is considered a leader in patient safety, recent data suggest high medication error rates in anesthesia practice. Unfortunately, few error prevention strategies for anesthesia providers have been implemented.

Assessing the Impact of the Anesthesia Medication Template on Medication Errors During Anesthesia: A Prospective Study.

Background: Medication errors continue to be a significant source of patient harm in the operating room with few concrete countermeasures. The organization and identification of medication syringes may have an impact on the commission of medication errors in anesthesia, so a team of physicians and designers at the University of Washington created the Anesthesia Medication Template (AMT) to define a formal way of organizing the anesthesia workspace. The purpose of this study is to assess the ability of the AMT to reduce perioperative medication errors by anesthesia providers.