Author: Staff

The Connecticut state Board of Education approved a new master's program at Quinnipiac University in Hamden to train anesthesiology assistants, even though they are not qualified to practice in the state, according to the Connecticut Post.

Dotty Bollinger, RN, JD, is the chief operating officer at the Laser Spine Institute in Tampa, Fla. She formerly served as the company's chief medical operations officer and chief compliance officer.

North American Partners in Anesthesia announced that its regional director, Michael B. Simon, MD, has been appointed president of the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists.

St. Louis-based Mobius Therapeutics announced a voluntary recall of two lots of Mitosol, (mitomycin for solution), 0.2 mg/vial, Kit for Ophthalmic Use because it cannot exclude the possibility that the lots may be non-sterile.

Intensive care units that were led by intensivists had a decreased mortality rate for sepsis patients compared with ICUs using an open model, according to a study in Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

The rate of pressure ulcers at a surgical intensive care unit decreased by 65.6 percent through the establishment of a turn team that turned patients every two hours, according to a study in Journal of the American College of Surgeons.

Hand hygiene compliance at 20 central Ohio hospitals increased by nearly 200 percent over two years through a collaborative project, according to a report by the Ohio Hospital Association's Central Ohio Hospital Quality Collaborative.

Humana's Medicare Advantage, commercial and Medicaid members will be able to receive in-network care at Halifax Health Twin Lakes Surgical Center, among other Halifax Health facilities, according to a Daytona Beach News-Journal report.

MedPAC has approved a recommendation that ambulatory surgery centers receive a 0% increase in payment rates for 2014, according to an ASCA report.

Surgery centers that depend heavily on specialties like ophthalmology, GI/endoscopy and pain management may struggle to remain profitable, as CMS institutes meager increases to reimbursement and commercial payors follow suit. Reed Martin, chief operating officer for Surgical Management Professionals, discusses…