RESEARCH BRIEF
A team from RAND and the University HealthSystem Consortium developed a toolkit to help hospitals enhance their quality improvement efforts using quality indicators from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
COMMENTARY
Hospitals that perform better on the survey tend to do better on clinical measures, have fewer readmissions within 30 days and have lower risk-adjusted mortality, write Marc Elliott and Alan Zaslavsky.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Examines net costs to teaching hospitals and cost-effectiveness to society across a range of hypothetical changes in preventable adverse events (PAEs).
REPORT
The study reports on the evidence and potential for use of 'emergency readmissions within 28 days of discharge from hospital' as an indicator within the NHS Outcomes Framework, drawing on a rapid review of systematic reviews.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Targeting the experiences of women may be a promising means of improving overall patient experience scores (because women comprise a majority of all inpatients); the experiences of older and sicker women, and those in for-profit hospitals, may merit additional examination.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Examines co-occurrence of iatrogenic events in US hospitals. Using Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality patient safety indicators (PSIs), the authors defined multiple patient safety events (MPSEs) as the occurrence of multiple PSIs during a single hospitalization.
PROJECT
A new online tool, called the "Unintended Consequences Guide," is available from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to help hospitals and other health care organizations anticipate, avoid, and address problems that can occur when adopting and using electronic health records.
COMMENTARY
Hospitals operating with little competition are able to charge health plans much higher prices, which are passed on to consumers in the form of higher insurance premiums, writes Glenn Melnick.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This paper applies a Markov decision process to the challenge of matching hospital staffing levels to inpatient demand.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Current federal standards for hospital "meaningful use" of health information technology--which requires electronic medication orders for 30 percent of eligible patients--are probably too low to reduce deaths from heart failure and heart attack among hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Between 1990 and 2009, the number of emergency rooms (ERs) in nonrural U.S. hospitals declined by 27 percent (from 2,446 to 1,779). Economic factors play a central role in an ER's ability to remain open.
NEWS RELEASE
Increased consolidation among health plans nationally may benefit consumers by lowering hospital prices, at least in those regions where health plans are the most consolidated.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Increased consolidation among health plans nationally may benefit consumers by lowering hospital prices, at least in those regions where health plans are the most consolidated.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Many hospital-acquired infections are preventable; reducing them would reduce in-hospital mortality, length of stay, and inpatient costs for trauma patients.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This article describes results of a systematic literature review focused on which interventions can be integrated into routine care to prevent pressure ulcers.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
This study found that the number of emergency departments operating in the US from 1990 to 2009 declined by 27%. EDs with safety-net status, for-profit ownership, and low profit margin were at higher risk of closure.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
Institute for Healthcare Improvement Global Trigger Tool is reliability for tracking local and national adverse event rates.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
The use of patient navigators-individuals who perform outreach, coordination, and education across language and cultural barriers-improved breast cancer quality of care in a public hospital and may help reduce disparities in quality of cancer care.
RESEARCH BRIEF
Shares findings on the potential effects of electronic health records (EHRs) on health care quality, based on analysis of extensive data from 2003 and 2006 on EHR adoption, hospital characteristics, and hospital quality in nearly 2,100 hospitals.
JOURNAL ARTICLE
High Medicare spending is not associated with better health outcomes at a regional level, but patients admitted to California hospitals from 1999 to 2008 had lower inpatient mortality in those hospitals that spent more on end of life care.