Survey Indicates Nurses Favor Advanced Electronic Health Records Systems

AHRQ Stats: Treatment for Adults Diagnosed With Diabetes

In 2015-16, only 15 percent of Asian adults diagnosed with diabetes reported using insulin injections to treat the condition, about half the rate of other racial/ethnic groups. Asians were more likely to report having their diabetes treated by diet modification and oral medication but no insulin injections. (Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #518: Treatment and Monitoring of Adults with Diagnosed Diabetes by Race/Ethnicity, 2015-2016.)

Today's Headlines

• Survey Indicates Nurses Favor Advanced Electronic Health Records Systems.
• New AHRQ Grantee Profile Highlights How Pascale Carayon, Ph.D., Uses System Engineering To Improve Patient Safety.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• AHRQ Report Examines Primary Care-Based Efforts To Reduce Hospital Readmissions.

Survey Indicates Nurses Favor Advanced Electronic Health Records Systems

Adoption of more comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) systems leads to greater satisfaction and use among nurses, as well as higher-quality care for patients, according to an AHRQ-funded study in Applied Clinical Informatics. Researchers surveyed more than 12,000 nurses in 157 hospitals with comprehensive EHR systems and 196 hospitals with basic systems or less. Hospitals with comprehensive systems had fewer workflow disruptions and staff concerns about EHR use. Overall, nurses working in better environments were significantly less likely to evaluate the EHR system negatively compared with nurses working in less favorable environments. Researchers concluded the findings suggest advanced EHR systems are associated with more positive usability ratings and higher nurse-reported quality of care. Access the abstract.

New AHRQ Grantee Profile Highlights How Pascale Carayon, Ph.D., Uses System Engineering To Improve Patient Safety

Our latest grantee profile examines how AHRQ-funded researcher Pascale Carayon, Ph.D., a professor of industrial and systems engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, uses a systems engineering and human factors approach to devise solutions to previously hidden patient safety risks. This approach takes a comprehensive look at complex systems that goes beyond fixing a single element to rethinking how it interacts within the entire system, including clinicians, patients and health technologies. Access her profile as well as others that illustrate how AHRQ grantees have made major advances in health services research.  

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Failure to debrief after critical events in anesthesia is associated with failures in communication during the event.
• Electronic patient identification for sample labeling reduces wrong blood in tube errors.
• Assessing the use of Google Translate for Spanish and Chinese translations of emergency department discharge instructions.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web). 

AHRQ Report Examines Primary Care-Based Efforts To Reduce Hospital Readmissions

A new AHRQ environmental scan identifies key components that should be included in primary care–based efforts to reduce hospital readmissions. Researchers examined current evidence on reducing readmissions from the primary care perspective, with a focus on evidence from successful practices. Research from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project indicates high rates of readmissions in the Medicare and adult Medicaid population associated with prescribing errors and misdiagnoses of conditions in hospital and ambulatory care settings. Many efforts to reduce readmissions have focused on the hospital setting and the use of evidence-based programs such as AHRQ’s Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) toolkit. Investigators who reviewed primary care strategies to reduce readmissions found that the most effective interventions involved care coordination, medication management, post-discharge telephone outreach and patient education. Access the report. 

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Strategies for improving the lives of US women aged 40 and above living with HIV/AIDS: an evidence map. Adam GP, Di M, Cu-Uvin S, et al. Syst Rev 2018 Feb 2;7(1):25. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Non-medical use of prescription opioids is associated with heroin initiation among US veterans: a prospective cohort study. Banerjee G, Edelman EJ, Barry DT, et al. Addiction 2016 Nov;111(11):2021-31. Epub 2016 Aug 23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Workarounds and test results follow-up in electronic health record-based primary care. Menon S, Murphy DR, Singh H, et al. Appl Clin Inform 2016 Jun 22;7(2):543-59. eCollection 2016. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Applying evidence from clinical trials: need for pediatric learning health system research. Mistry KB, Forrest CB. Pediatrics 2017 Dec;140(6). Epub 2017 Nov 2. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Emergency department cardiopulmonary evaluation of low-risk chest pain patients with self-reported stress and anxiety. Musey PI, Jr., Kline JA. J Emerg Med 2017 Mar;52(3):273-9. Epub 2016 Dec 18. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Simulation research in gastrointestinal and urologic care-challenges and opportunities: summary of a National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering workshop. Aggarwal R, Brown KM, de Groen PC, et al. Ann Surg 2018 Jan;267(1):26-34. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Prevalence of housing problems among community health center patients. Baggett TP, Berkowitz SA, Fung V, et al. JAMA 2018 Feb 20;319(7):717-9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Early life body fatness, serum anti-Müllerian hormone, and breast density in young adult women. Bertrand KA, Baer HJ, Orav EJ, et al. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2016 Jul;25(7):1151-7. Epub 2016 May 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.