Parents of children in hospital NICUs preferred parent-centered decision-making, compared with medical team-centered decision-making, when decisions involved big-picture goals and had a potential to harm infants, researchers reported in JAMA Pediatrics. For technical decisions, along with those that had a higher potential benefit, required medical expertise or were urgent, parents preferred a medical-team decision approach.

A study review found ICU quiet time interventions may improve sleep quality and have beneficial physiological effects for patients, researchers reported in the journal Nursing Standard. Nurses also said the interventions led to a more satisfying work environment.

Physician Robert Redfield has been appointed to lead the CDC. A longtime AIDS researcher, Redfield is also a professor at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine and worked at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research for two decades.

House and Senate lawmakers have voted to approve a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that would keep the federal government open through September, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump for his signature. The bill did not include provisions to fund cost-sharing reduction payments and state reinsurance programs.

Mayo Clinic clinicians spend three to five minutes less reviewing a patient's chart since an ambient intelligence application was added to the electronic health records system, according to a report in Harvard Business Review. The Ambient Warning and Response Evaluation program, which is in use at all Mayo campuses, covers all ICUs and tracks detailed information on each patient.

Point-of-care ultrasound is an effective tool for diagnosing abdominal, thoracic, cardiac and vascular diseases in emergency and critical care departments, and it will eventually become part of standard care for resuscitating surgical patients, according to a paper published in JAMA Surgery. However, standards vary for the use of POCUS and storage of scans for review, and optimal training must be defined, writes Dr. Albert Lowenfels, a professor emeritus in the Department of Surgery at New York Medical College.