Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1495475
20 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT Some hospital staff confuse emergency codes, study finds By Mackenzie Bean M any hospital employees are unable to identify the meaning of emergency codes, which could hinder an urgent response to incidents, according to a study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. e study, which included 304 clinical and nonclinical employees at five Georgia healthcare facilities, found staff correctly identified emergency codes 44.4 percent of the time. Codes for fire, infant abduction and cardiac arrest were the most well known of the 14 examined. "e results of our study suggest a prompt response to such incidents is likely to be poor, as most employees were unaware of the meanings or actions of these notifications," study author Morgan Taylor, a doctoral student at the University of Georgia's College of Public Health in Athens, said in a Jan. 17 news release. Employees who received training at orientation, understood emergency code activation procedures and worked at their respective facility for two to five years were more likely to accurately identify codes. Accuracy was lower in staff members who worked at four or five different healthcare organizations, suggesting that the lack of standardized code colors across the healthcare industry may confuse employees. e findings point to the need for additional employee training and accessible job aids or code pocket guides, researchers said. ey also made a case for switching from color codes to plain language emergency alerts to reduce employee confusion. n Omicron is 1.5 times more deadly than flu inside hospitals, study finds By Ashleigh Hollowell S ARS-CoV-2 omicron infections are more likely to result in death than the flu inside hospitals, a study in Switzerland found. "Because the omicron variant appears to be associated with a less severe outcome, it is important to understand whether in-hospital outcomes of this COVID-19 variant have become comparable with other frequent viral airway infections, like seasonal influenza," researchers wrote. Researchers studied more than 5,000 patients who were hospitalized and placed in the intensive care unit with either omicron or the flu and compared 30-day outcomes, which resulted in a mortality rate that is 1.5 times higher for omicron. The findings, they said, are "crucial to assess the current burden of disease of community-acquired SARS- CoV-2 omicron variant in hospitalized patients to tailor appropriate public health policies." n HCA Healthcare surgical recovery program sees decrease in length of stay, readmission rates By Ashleigh Hollowell A surgical recovery program implemented by Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare has so far shown a reduction in length of hospital stays by two days and a 44 percent decrease in opioid usage. The initiative, known as the Enhanced Surgical Recovery program, is designed after a program in Europe and aims to take a multidisciplinary approach through therapies, patient education, pain management and more to improve patient outcomes post-surgery, according to a Feb. 15 press release. Results from HCA Healthcare's research of 141,482 surgeries has so far "shown to be a proven roadmap to help improve surgical results," the organization wrote. Other notable findings from patient outcomes after ESR- focused treatment include: • More than 2 million fewer morphine medications dispensed. • A 54 percent decrease in readmissions after 30 days post-joint replacements. • A 45 percent decrease in readmissions after 90 days post-gynecological surgery. n