Becker's Hospital Review

84 CMO / CARE DELIVERY Detroit Medical Center to lose neurosurgery training accreditation By Ayla Ellison D etroit Medical Center will lose accreditation for its neurosurgery training program in June after the Ac- creditation Council of Graduate Medical Education denied the hospital's appeal, according to The Detroit News. The ACGME decided to withdraw accreditation of the residency program after a site visit in September. Detroit Medical Center appealed the decision but was unable to regain accreditation. "We have been informed by ACGME that our appeal was not successful," states a letter CEO Audrey Gregory, PhD, RN, sent to staff on Feb. 5, which was obtained by The De- troit News. "We believe that our program substantially com- plied with ACGME standards and that our continued efforts to optimize the program merited continued accreditation." DMC plans to take steps to reestablish the residency pro- gram, a spokesperson told The Detroit News. n Mayo Clinic medical school accepts 364 students by mistake By Ayla Ellison T he Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine in Roches- ter, Minn., erroneously emailed 364 letters of accep- tance to students seeking admission. The school said the letters, which were emailed by mis- take Feb. 13, have been withdrawn. "Soon after the emails were sent, a technical error was dis- covered and the letters of acceptance were withdrawn by email," according to a statement on the school's website. "All affected applicants have been contacted by phone." Admissions Dean J. Michael Bostwick, MD, told CNN the school makes offers to just 46 students, and the school always makes initial offers over the phone. "We're still not clear how this happened, and we're so up- set for these folks," Dr. Bostwick told CNN. The medical school said it is continuing to investigate the issue. n Toilet flushing spreads C. diff in hospital bathrooms, study suggests By Mackenzie Bean C losing the toilet lid before flushing may help limit the spread of Clostridium difficile in patient rooms, sug- gest the findings of a study published in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology. For the study, researchers collected bioaerosol samples from the bathrooms of 24 patients with C. difficile infections at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City. Samples were taken from the air near toilet rims 20 min- utes before and after flushing. Of 72 samples collected before toilet flushing, 13 percent tested positive for healthcare-associated bacteria. In con- trast, 26 percent of samples taken after flushing tested positive for bacteria. The most commonly detected bac- teria were Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, and C. difficile. "Bioaerosols produced by toilet flushing potentially contrib- ute to hospital environmental contamination," researchers concluded. "Prevention measures (eg, toilet lids) should be evaluated as interventions to prevent toilet-associated envi- ronmental contamination in clinical settings." n Hospitality trumps care quality in patient surveys, study finds By Anuja Vaidya N either care quality nor patient survival rates have a significant effect on patient satisfaction ratings, according to a study published in the journal Social Forces. "Hospitality experiences create a halo effect of patient goodwill, while medical excellence and patient safety do not," the study authors wrote. Researchers examined CMS data on patient satisfaction, death rates and care quality for more than 3,000 hospitals between 2007 and 2010. They found that patient satisfaction scores for hospitals with the highest death rates were only 2 percentage points lower than scores for at hospitals with the lowest death rates. They also found that patients are more likely to take into consideration the visible "room and board" aspects of care when deciding satisfaction scores. For example, qui- et rooms had a larger effect on patient satisfaction than care quality. Additionally, nurses' interpersonal skills, including their responsiveness and compassion, not their technical med- ical skills, played a far larger role in patient satisfaction. n

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