AHRQ Supports New Initiative To Increase Participation in Cardiac Rehab

AHRQ Stats: Health System Participation in Accountable Care Organizations

About 44 percent of hospitals that belonged to health systems in 2016 participated in accountable care organization (ACO) contracts. Meanwhile, only 13 percent of nonsystem hospitals participated in ACOs. (Source: AHRQ, Compendium of U.S. Health Systems—Health System Participation in Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), 2016.)

Editor’s note: the item above repeats last week’s AHRQ Stats but includes a corrected link.

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Supports New Initiative To Increase Participation in Cardiac Rehab.
• Fewer Errors Seen in Computerized Prescribing System That Selects Medications Based on Indications.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network
• AHRQ’s “Fast Stats” Now Offers 2016 National Inpatient Data on Utilization, Costs of Healthcare.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Supports New Initiative To Increase Participation in Cardiac Rehab

A new $6 million, three-year project funded by AHRQ is designed to save lives by increasing patient participation in cardiac rehabilitation after cardiovascular events such as heart attacks, heart failure, angioplasty or heart surgery. Only 20 percent of the nearly one million Americans who experience a qualifying event each year participate in cardiac rehabilitation despite evidence that doing so saves lives and reduces health care costs. Increasing cardiac rehabilitation participation from about 20 percent to 70 percent could save nearly 25,000 lives and prevent about 180,000 hospitalizations a year. AHRQ’s new initiative will include partnering with and training  at least 100 hospitals and health systems to increase rehabilitation referrals, enrollment and retention while applying strategies in the new Cardiac Rehabilitation Change Package, a quality improvement action guide developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. Access the AHRQ press release.

Fewer Errors Seen in Computerized Prescribing System That Selects Medications Based on Indications

A computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system that incorporated drug indications into prescription ordering workflows improved clinicians’ efficiency and lowered prescribing errors compared with two leading commercial CPOE systems, according to an AHRQ-funded project that developed and tested the model. Current CPOE systems do not effectively support adding indications to prescriptions. The CPOE system developed by researchers gave clinicians the option of starting with the indication and allowing the system to offer alternatives for common primary care problems such as poorly controlled hypertension, migraine prevention, gout flare and newly diagnosed diabetes. In addition to requiring fewer clicks and less time to complete orders, the prototype resulted in fewer errors. Access the abstract of the study published in JAMA Network Open. 

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:

• The impact of patient–physician alliance on trust following an adverse event.
• Is physician mentorship associated with the occurrence of adverse patient safety events?
• Incivility and patient safety: a longitudinal study of rudeness, protocol compliance, and adverse events.

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’s “Fast Stats” Now Offers 2016 National Inpatient Data on Utilization, Costs of Healthcare

Statistics for 2016 hospital inpatient diagnoses and procedures are now available in AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Fast Stats—Trends in Inpatient Stays. The data allow researchers, policymakers and others to examine national trends on inpatient utilization and costs across a variety of patient characteristics. The data also are available on HCUPnet, an online query system that is available at no cost. Other enhancements to HCUPnet include graphs of two-way statistics, inclusion and refinement of ICD-10 queries, and aggregation of community-level statistical tables by 3-year increments. Access Fast Stats Frequently Asked Questions for questions or contact HCUP User Support.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Use of telemedicine in addiction treatment: current practices and organizational implementation characteristics. Molfenter T, Brown R, O'Neill A, et al. Int J Telemed Appl 2018 Mar 11;2018:3932643. eCollection 2018. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A web-based interactive tool to reduce childhood obesity risk in urban minority youth: usability testing study. Verdaguer S, Mateo KF, Wyka K, et al. JMIR Form Res 2018 Nov 1;2(2):e21. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Violent crime and park use in low-income urban neighborhoods. Han B, Cohen DA, Derose KP, et al. Am J Prev Med 2018 Mar;54(3):352-8. Epub 2018 Jan 12. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Time crunch: increasing the efficiency of assessment of technical surgical skill via brief video clips. Sawyer JM, Anton NE, Korndorffer JR Jr, et al. Surgery 2018 Apr;163(4):933-7. Epub 2018 Jan 17. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Insights into older adult patient concerns around the caregiver proxy portal use: qualitative interview study. Latulipe C, Quandt SA, Melius KA, et al. J Med Internet Res 2018 Nov 2;20(11):e10524. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Can claims data algorithms identify the physician of record? DuGoff EH, Walden E, Ronk K, et al. Med Care. 2018 Mar;56(3):e16-e20. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Evaluation of a patient-centered after visit summary in primary care. Federman AD, Jandorf L, DeLuca J, et al. Patient Educ Couns 2018 Aug;101(8):1483-9. Epub 2018 Mar 6. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Sample size estimation for comparing rates of change in K-group repeated count outcomes. Lou Y, Cao J, Ahn C. Commun Stat Theory Methods 2017;46(22):11204-13. Epub 2017 Aug 7. Access the abstract on PubMed®