Health Care Quality

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Gender Biases in Health Care: Listen to Women About Their Own Health

More and more information, evidence, and personal stories are emerging suggesting women are not being listened to or believed by health care professionals about their symptoms of physical illness. There is ongoing work in the United Kingdom to improve and integrate women's health services, which creates hope for improvements.

Lucy Hocking

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Informing the Debate About Telemedicine Reimbursement: What Do We Need to Know?

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. payers and policymakers broadly expanded payment for telemedicine services and relaxed many regulations. To decide the long-term fate of pandemic-era temporary telemedicine, policymakers should consider the effects of telemedicine on health care spending, patient outcomes, and health equity.

Ateev Mehrotra, Lori Uscher-Pines

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Racism and Patient Safety, Abortion After Dobbs, Homelessness: RAND Weekly Recap

This week, we discuss how racism impacts patient safety; the effects of overturning Roe v. Wade; trauma in the U.S. Intelligence Community; addressing homelessness in L.A.; disputes in the South China Sea; and how space mirrors might help address climate change.

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The Impact of Racism on Patient Safety

Minoritized patients are at high risk of experiencing what the medical field calls “patient safety events.” But the way the U.S. health care system tracks patient safety too often makes their experiences invisible. Better reporting would allow hospitals and other providers to identify disparities in care, and to address them.

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Setting Standards for Delivering High-Quality Care to Veterans with Invisible Wounds

Posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, traumatic brain injury, and substance use disorders are common among post-9/11 veterans and can interfere with their employment, family life, engagement with their communities, and overall well-being. A shared definition and standards for high-quality care can help organizations better support veterans.

Natalie Ernecoff, Carrie M. Farmer @carriefarmer, et al.

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Veterans Health Care, Media Literacy, Sleep Retreats: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the challenges of VA community care, the importance of improving middle schoolers' media literacy skills, tips to improve sleep, and more.

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Tele-Palliative Care Among Underserved Patients: Considerations for Future Research to Ensure Equity for All Patients

Underserved patients have been historically marginalized in health care and may experience extensive barriers to palliative care. Telehealth may be a particularly promising mode of palliative care by engaging patients across long distances and facilitating access to existing palliative care resources.

Julia Bandini, Natalie Ernecoff, et al.

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Politicized Topics in School, the War in Ukraine, Post-Quantum Cryptography: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the intrusion of politicized topics in America's schools, where the war in Ukraine may be headed, post-quantum cryptography, and more.

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In Search of an Equity Lens: A Physician's Journey

Patient health outcomes, communication with providers, and overall patient satisfaction improve when patients and providers share a similar background. Further, diverse work environments may positively impact health care provider job satisfaction. Increasing diversity in health care work settings is a first important step that could help to increase equity and inclusion in these environments.

Mahshid Abir

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Doubling NIH Funding for Women's Health Would Yield Substantial Return on Investment

The scientific evidence base generally is biased toward the male body as a result of a long history of generous funding for diseases that predominantly affect men and underfunding for those that predominantly affect women. But the cost of the science pales in comparison to the price we continue to pay for what we don't know about caring for women.

Chloe E. Bird @ChloeBirdPhD

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Promoting Patient-Clinician Conversations to Reduce Cascades of Care

A cascade of care is a seemingly uncontrollable sequence of medical services that is driven by the desire to avoid even the smallest risk of a bad outcome. What drives cascades? And what interventions might mitigate them?

Kathleen L. Mulligan, Ishani Ganguli, et al.

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Does Vertical Integration Improve or Imperil U.S. Health Care?

Health care consolidation is endemic across the United States. With consolidation has come public attention and regulatory scrutiny. Unfortunately, evidence is accumulating that health care consolidation is harming competition in the U.S. health care market, while neither reducing costs nor improving care.

M. Susan Ridgely

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Advances in Care for Veterans with Traumatic Brain Injuries or PTSD

A new standard of care proposed by RAND researchers aims to redefine high-quality care for veterans with a traumatic brain injury or posttraumatic stress disorder. But it also could serve as a template for making health care more effective, more consistent, and more responsive for more patients.

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No Patient Left Behind: Considering Equitable Distribution of Telehealth

The pandemic has revealed telemedicine's potential to improve health care delivery and access. Telemedicine could help reach patients who would normally be excluded or alienated by the traditional structure of the health system.

Rama A. Salhi, Mahshid Abir, et al.

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What Influences Quality Improvement Processes in Health Care?

Periods of rapid change offer both opportunities and challenges for health care quality improvement. Understanding the building blocks that need to be in place to support improvement processes may help those seeking to embed improvement capabilities and capacity into their organisations, both as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Gemma-Claire Ali, Emily Ryen Gloinson, et al.