Variability in Case Durations for Common Surgical Procedures 2021
This is an exploratory study to quantify the facility-level variation in surgical case duration for common surgeries.
Publications on Health Care Quality
Quality of care is the extent to which all individuals receive the right care, at the right time, every time. RAND has been conducting research on measuring and assessing quality of health care for 40 years, and RAND teams developed many of the quality measures being used around the world today. In 2005, RAND analysts produced the first national report card on quality of care in the United States.
2021
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Impact of Risk Adjustment for Socioeconomic Status on Risk-adjusted Surgical Readmission Rates 2021
This article assesses whether differences in readmission rates between safety-net hospitals (SNH) and non-SNHs are due to differences in hospital quality, and compares the results of hospital profiling with and without adjusting for socioeconomic status.
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A Comparison of the Injury Severity Score and the Trauma Mortality Prediction Model 2021
We compared the performance of the Trauma Mortality Prediction Model with the Injury Severity Score and other measures of injury severity in a single cohort of patients.
2020
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Impact of Medicare's Nonpayment Program on Hospital-acquired Conditions 2020
This article determines whether Medicare's Nonpayment Program was associated with changes in incidence of hospital-acquired conditions, and whether this association varies across hospitals with differential Medicare patient load.
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Feasibility of Report Cards for Measuring Anesthesiologist Quality for Cardiac Surgery 2020
We conducted a study of 55,436 patients undergoing cardiac surgery between 2009 and 2012. Hierarchical logistic regression modeling was used to examine the variation in in-hospital mortality or major complications.
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Outcomes Are Worse in US Patients Undergoing Surgery on Weekends Compared With Weekdays 2020
The aim of this study was to determine whether patients undergoing surgery on weekends are more likely to die or experience a major complication compared with patients undergoing surgery on a weekday.
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Quality of Quality Measurement: Impact of Risk Adjustment, Hospital Volume, and Hospital Performance 2020
Monte Carlo simulation was used to examine the accuracy of performance profiling as a function of statistical methodology, case volume, and the extent to which hospital or physician performance deviates from the average.
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Does Mandating Nursing Home Participation in Quality Reporting Make a Difference? Evidence From Massachusetts 2020
In this study, we investigate one of the mechanisms that may detract from the effectiveness of health care quality report cards: voluntary versus mandatory participation of nursing homes in public quality reporting.
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What Can the National Quality Forum Tell Us About Performance Measurement in Anesthesiology? 2020
In this article, we describe the current state of performance measurement in anesthesia care at the national level and highlight gaps and opportunities in performance measurement for anesthesiologists.
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Anesthesiologists and the Transformation of the Healthcare System: A Call to Action 2020
This is the second in a series of six editorials on the changing definitions of safety across the perioperative period and how anesthesiologists can participate in and lead the transformation of health care with focus on patient value.
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CMS Reimbursement Reform and the Incidence of Hospital-Acquired Pulmonary Embolism or Deep Vein Thrombosis 2020
CMS's refusal to pay for hospital-acquired conditions resulted in a lower incidence of hospital-acquired pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis after hip or knee replacement surgery.
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Hospital Readmission After Noncardiac Surgery: The Role of Major Complications 2020
To examine whether the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) predicted risk of major complications can be used to identify surgical patients at risk for rehospitalization.
2019
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Characteristics of Chiropractic Patients Being Treated for Chronic Low Back and Neck Pain 2019
This study describes the characteristics of a large sample of chronic low back pain and chronic neck pain patients in the United States who use chiropractic care for their chronic low back pain and chronic neck pain.
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A Comprehensive Theory of Integration 2019
This article presents a comprehensive theory describing how integrating structures, processes, and people within and across organizations might lead to integrated patient care and improved outcomes, including technical quality, efficiency, patient health, and both patient and provider experience.
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Evidence for Misspecification of a Nationally Used Quality Measure for Substance Use Treatment 2019
Our results suggest that the omission of MAT in the current version of the HEDIS measure "Initiation and Engagement of Alcohol and Other Drug Dependence Treatment" results in meaningful measurement error.
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Initiation and Engagement as Mechanisms for Change Caused by Collaborative Care in Opioid and Alcohol Use Disorders 2019
This research sheds light on how collaborative care (CC) may work to increase abstinence in a sample of primary care patients with opioid and alcohol use disorders (OAUD).
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A Multi-Stakeholder Consensus-Driven Research Agenda for Better Understanding and Supporting the Emotional Impact of Harmful Events on Patients and Families 2019
A one-day AHRQ conference led to a consensus-driven research agenda aiming to better understand and respond to the short- and long-term emotional impact of harmful events on patients and families.
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Preferences of Adults with Spinal Cord Injury for Widely Used Health-Related Quality of Life and Subjective Well-Being Measures 2019
This article describes preferences for survey instruments on health-related quality of life and subjective well-being among adults with spinal cord injury, and compares perspectives on the instruments between the United States and the United Kingdom.
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Types and Costs of Services for Dual Beneficiaries by Medicare Advantage Health Plans: An Environmental Scan 2019
Beneficiaries dually enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid are less likely to receive high-quality care. But some plans have identified effective ways to meet the needs of their dually enrolled beneficiaries. This report identifies the types of services that Medicare Advantage plans implement to meet the needs of dually enrolled and other high-cost, high-need beneficiaries and presents a typology of the services that plans implement.
2018
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RAND Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Contract Star Ratings Technical Expert Panel May 31st 2018 Meeting 2018
On May 31, 2018, the RAND Corporation convened a Technical Expert Panel (TEP) to gather input on analyses that could be conducted to further enhance the Medicare Advantage (MA) and Part D Contract Star Ratings program.