AHRQ Awards $16 Million in Grants To Address Unhealthy Alcohol Use

AHRQ Stats: High-Cost Pediatric Hospital Care

Pediatric hospital stays with the highest cost in 2016 involved the circulatory system and averaged $56,300 per stay. (Source: AHRQ, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #250: Costs of Pediatric Hospital Stays, 2016.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Awards $16 Million in Grants To Address Unhealthy Alcohol Use.
• Help Lead the AHRQ Team: Applications for New Deputy Director Due December 5.
• David Meyers, M.D., Elected to National Academy of Medicine.
• Diagnostic Performance Improves for Primary Care Pediatric Practices .
• AHRQ Chartbook Indicates More Than Half of Healthcare Quality Measures Showed Improvement in 2018.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Only One-Quarter of Hospitals Use ‘Low-Interventional’ Approaches to Maternity Care, California Survey Finds.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature. 

AHRQ Awards $16 Million in Grants To Address Unhealthy Alcohol Use

AHRQ has awarded $16 million in grants to help primary care practices increase efforts to address patients’ unhealthy alcohol use. Six grantees will work with more than 700 primary care practices over three years to implement and evaluate strategies to increase the use of evidence-based interventions such as screening for unhealthy alcohol use; brief interventions for adult patients who drink too much; and medication-assisted therapy for patients with an alcohol use disorder. Unhealthy alcohol use, which affects almost a third of adults, is the third leading cause of preventable death and is a major risk factor for many health, social and economic problems. Access the press release and a video, as well as more information about the grants. 

Help Lead the AHRQ Team: Applications for New Deputy Director Due December 5

AHRQ is seeking an applicant to fill the role of deputy director, particularly a person who has demonstrated knowledge and experience as a senior-level executive in a healthcare system. The ideal applicant will bring to the agency a proven track record of developing and implementing best practices and protocols that increase the value of healthcare services by making patient care safer and increasing quality. As a high-performing executive, skilled strategist and collaborative relationship builder with an exceptional record of delivering optimal results and measurable outcomes, the new AHRQ deputy director will have a primary role in advancing the agency’s core capabilities in health systems research, practice improvement and data and analytics. The deputy director will also serve as AHRQ’s principal liaison to partners and stakeholders in healthcare systems throughout the United States. People with the special ability for recognizing and cultivating talent and inspiring greatness in others should access more information about how to apply.

David Meyers, M.D., Elected to National Academy of Medicine

David Meyers, M.D., AHRQ’s chief physician, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine with recognition for his executive leadership of the agency’s essential research functions as well as shaping national thinking through his early and innovative direction of AHRQ’s primary care and practice transformation research portfolios. Dr. Meyers has directed the agency’s work in support of the patient-centered medical home and led EvidenceNOW, AHRQ’s $110 million initiative to help primary care practices improve patients’ heart health. Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service. Dr. Meyers is a board-certified family physician and nationally recognized leader in primary care research and organization. As a member of the Office of the Director, he is involved in agency strategic program planning including AHRQ’s three priority initiatives: transforming care for people with multiple chronic conditions, improving diagnosis, and powering decision-making through data and analytics. “David’s contributions to AHRQ and the field of health services research are immeasurable,” said AHRQ Director Gopal Khanna, M.B.A. “I cannot think of anyone who cares more, or works harder, to advance the quality and safety of the nation’s healthcare.” In response to his election, Dr. Meyers emphasized this his accomplishments are the result of working with talented and dedicated colleagues at AHRQ.

Diagnostic Performance Improves for Primary Care Pediatric Practices

Diagnoses for pediatric elevated blood pressure and adolescent depression improved and were sustained with interventions from an American Academy of Pediatrics collaborative, AHRQ-funded research showed. The interventions were developed by an American Academy of Pediatrics Quality Improvement Innovation Network that included 43 randomized practices nationwide. AHRQ-funded research also show that missed or delayed actions for laboratory tests with abnormal results improved during the maintenance phase and after the intervention. The research was used to develop AHRQ's Reducing Diagnostic Errors in Primary Care Pediatrics Toolkit. The research results were published in the journal Pediatric Quality & Safety. 

AHRQ Chartbook Indicates More Than Half of Healthcare Quality Measures Showed Improvement in 2018

According to AHRQ’s new Chartbook on Patient Safety, 54 percent of all healthcare quality measures improved through 2017. The chartbook, based on data from AHRQ’s 2018 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report, is part of the agency’s ongoing effort to assess the performance of our healthcare system and to identify areas of strengths and weaknesses. The report shows that nearly two-thirds of patient safety measures, such as complications of medication and surgical care, improved during 2017. Home health communication was the only setting in which any measure worsened, and the only setting where the majority of measures (83 percent) did not change over time. Access the chartbook and more information on AHRQ’s Patient Safety tools and resources. 

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:

• Strategies to reduce diagnostic errors: a systematic review.
• Improving the quality of insulin prescribing for people with diabetes being discharged from hospital.
• The impact of post-fall huddles on repeat fall rates and perceptions of safety culture: a quasi-experimental evaluation of a patient safety demonstration project.

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).

Only One-Quarter of Hospitals Use ‘Low-Interventional’ Approaches to Maternity Care, California Survey Finds

A survey of hospitals in California found that less than one-quarter used “low-interventional” approaches to maternity care, such as use of alternative positions during labor, nondrug pain relief and continuous labor support. The AHRQ-supported study, published in Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, found hospitals more likely to use low-interventional practices included those with midwife-led or physician-midwife collaborative labor management, and those in rural areas. Hospitals with a higher proportion of women covered by Medicaid or other safety-net programs were less likely to use low-interventional practices, as were those in counties with higher medical liability insurance premiums. Hospitals showed a consistent pattern in use of each of the nine low-interventional practices, suggesting a general culture in how each hospital delivers maternity care, researchers said. Access the abstract. 

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Treatment for Acute Pain: An Evidence Map.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Linking electronic health record and trauma registry data: assessing the value of probabilistic linkage. Durojaiye AB, Puett LL, Levin S, et al. Methods Inf Med 2018 Nov;57(5-06):e3. Epub 2018 Nov 19. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Test-retest reliability of the Newest Vital Sign health literacy instrument: in-person and remote administration. Russell AM, Patel DA, Curtis LM, et al. Patient Educ Couns 2019 Apr;102(4):749-52. Epub 2018 Nov 22. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A comparison of two structured taxonomic strategies in capturing adverse events in U.S. hospitals. Austin JM, Kirley EM, Rosen MA, et al. Health Serv Res 2019 Jun;54(3):613-22. Epub 2018 Nov 25. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A population approach using cholesterol imputation to identify adults with high cardiovascular risk: a report from AHRQ's EvidenceNow initiative. Cykert S, DeWalt DA, Weiner BJ, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2019 Feb 1;26(2):155-8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Risk factors for thirty-day readmissions after lower extremity amputation in patients with vascular disease. Vogel TR, Smith JB, Kruse RL. PM R 2018 Dec;10(12):1321-9. Epub 2018 May 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Integrity of clinical information in computerized order requisitions for diagnostic imaging. Lacson R, Laroya R, Wang A, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2018 Dec 1;25(12):1651-6. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

National performance on the Medicare SEP-1 sepsis quality measure. Barbash IJ, Davis B, Kahn JM. Crit Care Med 2019 Aug;47(8):1026-32. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Safety of obese persons in nursing homes. Felix HC, Bradway C, Bird TM, et al. Med Care 2018 Dec;56(12):1032-4. Access the abstract on PubMed®.