Trauma Registries Ineffective for Capturing Data To Evaluate Care of Injured Older Adults

AHRQ Stats: Vaccination for Shingles

Fewer than four in 10 Americans 65 and older received the shingles vaccine in 2015. (Source: AHRQ, MEPS Research Findings #41: Use of Clinical Preventive Services in the United States: Estimates From the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), 2015.)

Today's Headlines:

• Trauma Registries Ineffective for Capturing Data To Evaluate Care of Injured Older Adults.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Case Study Highlights University of Utah Health’s Use of Data To Support Goals as Learning Health System.
• Workshop on Using Data From Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.
• Funding Applications Due Sept. 25 and Oct. 5 for Research Projects on Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antibiotic Resistance.
• AHRQ Seeks Nominations to its National Advisory Council.
• Workshop Instructs Users of AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project.

Trauma Registries Ineffective for Capturing Data To Evaluate Care of Injured Older Adults

Nearly 80 percent of registry-eligible serious injuries among adults ages 65 years or older were not recorded in two state trauma registries commonly used for evaluating and improving patient care, according to an AHRQ-funded study in JAMA Surgery. Researchers who examined the medical records for 51 medical centers in Washington and Oregon during 2011 identified about 8,200 older patients with serious injuries that required surgery or resulted in death. Although these patients’ injuries were qualified to be recorded in trauma registries, only about 21 percent had a matching trauma registry record. Researchers discovered that registries missed 93 of 188 in-hospital deaths and 178 of 553 major eligible injuries. Researchers concluded that high-risk injured older adults are not included in registries because of care in nontrauma hospitals, restrictive registry inclusion criteria, and being missed by registries in trauma centers. Access the abstract.

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:

• Prevalence, severity and nature of preventable patient harm across medical care settings: systematic review and meta-analysis.
• Duration of second-victim symptoms in the aftermath of a patient safety incident and association with the level of patient harm: a cross-sectional study in the Netherlands.
• Study of a multisite prospective adverse event surveillance system.

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).

Case Study Highlights University of Utah Health’s Use of Data To Support Goals as Learning Health System

University of Utah Health—an academic health center with four hospitals, 12 community clinics and 23 regional partners—maintains its enterprise data warehouse to inform clinical practice and deliver quality care as a learning health system. “We have so much clinical and financial data about our healthcare system that there’s really no reason we should ever make decisions independent of good data,” said Charlton Park, M.B.A., chief financial officer and chief analytics officer. Based in Salt Lake City, the system serves patients inUtah and five surrounding states. Learn more about University of Utah Health’s efforts to provide high-quality care in a new case study, one of four developed by AHRQ to showcase successes among learning health systems.

Workshop on Using Data From Medical Expenditure Panel Survey

There is an in-person workshop on using data from AHRQ’s Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). MEPS is an ongoing group of large-scale surveys that provide the most complete source of data on the cost and use of healthcare and health insurance coverage in the United States. The free workshop in Rockville, Md., will provide practical information about using MEPS public use data files and an opportunity to construct analytic files with the assistance of AHRQ staff. The workshop is designed for health services researchers with backgrounds or interest in using national health surveys.  Registration closes Sept. 17. Access more information. 

Funding Applications Due Sept. 25 and Oct. 5 for Research Projects on Healthcare-Associated Infections and Antibiotic Resistance

AHRQ is seeking innovative research proposals for preventing healthcare-associated infections (HAI) and combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria (CARB). Funding applications are due Sept. 25 for demonstration and dissemination projects (R18) and Oct. 5 for large research projects (R01). HAI projects in both grant categories should demonstrate new ways to detect, prevent and reduce HAIs. CARB projects should address ways to promote appropriate antibiotic use, reduce the transmission of resistant bacteria or prevent HAIs. Access “Research Funding Available” to learn more.

AHRQ Seeks Nominations to its National Advisory Council

Nominations will accepted until Aug. 11 for appointments to AHRQ's National Advisory Council, a 21-member volunteer panel that meets three times a year to advise the agency's director and the HHS secretary on matters related to AHRQ's mission. Nominees can be experts in healthcare quality and improvement, clinical practice, health insurance, healthcare administration, economics, informatics, healthcare law or public policy. The agency also welcomes nominees from small healthcare systems as well as state and local human services organizations. Access more information.

Workshop Instructs Users of AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project

A Sept. 24 in-person workshop at AHRQ will help health services researchers and analysts learn more about using the agency’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) databases and products. Examples of HCUP resources will be demonstrated through data analyses on opioid, alcohol and substance use topics. Participants should bring their own laptops, and they should have prior experience with HCUP or large administrative databases. Attendees not familiar with HCUP databases should attend the HCUP Overview Webinar presentations Sept. 10 and Sept. 17, and/or review the Online HCUP Overview Course.  Email questions to hcuppres@us.ibm.com.