AHRQ Views Blog: CAHPS® – 25 Years of Putting the Patient First

AHRQ Stats: Potentially Preventable Hospital Stays for Adults

As many as 3.5 million hospital stays among adults in 2017 were considered potentially preventable, costing nearly $34 billion. The preventable stays represented nearly 13 percent of all hospital stays (excluding obstetrics) and almost 9 percent of all costs. (Source: AHRQ, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #259, Characteristics and Costs of Potentially Preventable Inpatient Stays, 2017.) 

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views Blog: CAHPS® – 25 Years of Putting the Patient First.
• Hospital Compare Program Reduces Cardiac Care Prices Without Penalizing High Performers.
• AHRQ Grantee Improves Immunization Rates Among Hispanic Patients.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Featured Studies on Improving Primary Care.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views Blog: CAHPS^® – 25 Years of Putting the Patient First

AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Program, which recently marked its 25th year of helping healthcare organizations understand patients’ experiences with their care, is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog. Agency Director Gopal Khanna, M.B.A., and CAHPS Director Caren Ginsberg, Ph.D., note that healthcare organizations have used the CAHPS evidence-based surveys over more than two decades to improve healthcare quality and emphasize patient-centered care. Beginning with a survey to measure beneficiaries’ experience with health plans, the program now covers patients’ experiences with hospitals, other healthcare facilities, medical groups and providers. Later this month, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CAHPS will release a beta version of a survey to assess patients’ experience with any format of ambulatory care visit, including telehealth. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address and select “AHRQ Views Blog.”

Hospital Compare Program Reduces Cardiac Care Prices Without Penalizing High Performers

Public reporting of hospital quality data through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Hospital Compare program resulted in reduced consumer prices overall for cardiac care while still allowing high-performing hospitals to maintain prices that were 8 to 14 percent higher, according to an AHRQ-funded study. The authors analyzed cardiac patient and price data for 100 medium-size and large employers from the IBM Watson Health MarketScan® Commercial Claims and Encounters database, as well as Hospital Compare ratings. The authors concluded that Hospital Compare was effective at restraining prices without penalizing high-performing hospitals. Access the abstract of the study, published in the Journal of Economics & Management Strategy.

AHRQ Grantee Improves Immunization Rates Among Hispanic Patients

Through AHRQ’s practice-based research grants, Melissa Stockwell, M.D., M.P.H., used health information technology and mobile technology to devise “FluAlerts” and other solutions to improve the immunization status of underrepresented pediatric patients. Dr. Stockwell is the chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Access Dr. Stockwell's profile for details, as well as profiles of other AHRQ grantees. 

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:

• Analysis of risk factors for patient safety events occurring in the emergency department.
• Delay or avoidance of medical care because of COVID-19-related concerns—United States, June 2020.
• Process failures that increase the risk of infection through respiratory droplets: a study of patient safety events reported by hospitals across Pennsylvania.

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).

Featured Studies on Improving Primary Care

AHRQ’s EvidenceNOW: Advancing Heart Health in Primary Care initiative funds studies on how providing external support, such as practice facilitation, can increase the capacity of small and medium-sized primary care practices to improve heart health. The effort helps practices increase the use of evidence-based interventions such as the use of aspirin for eligible patients, blood pressure controls, cholesterol management and smoking cessation counseling. Recent publications include:

• Exemplary Practices in Cardiovascular Care: Results on Clinical Quality Measures From the EvidenceNOW Southwest Cooperative.
• Readiness and Implementation of Quality Improvement Strategies Among Small- and Medium-Sized Primary Care Practices: An Observational Study.
• Practice Level Factors Associated With Enhanced Engagement With Practice Facilitators; Findings From The Heart Health Now Study.

Access other published studies from this initiative.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Systematic review: Management of Colonic Diverticulitis.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

National study of telepsychiatry use in U.S. emergency departments. Freeman RE, Boggs KM, Zachrison KS, et al. Psychiatr Serv 2020 Jun;71(6):540-6. Epub 2020 Feb 5. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Landscape of health systems in the United States. Furukawa MF, Machta RM, Barrett KA, et al. Med Care Res Rev 2020 Aug;77(4):357-66. Epub 2019 Jan 23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Reducing the risk of diagnostic error in the COVID-19 era. Gandhi TK, Singh H. J Hosp Med 2020 Jun;15(6):363-6. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Pediatric outcomes after regulatory mandates for sepsis care. Gigli KH, Davis BS, Yabes JG, et al. Pediatrics 2020 Jul;146(1): e20193353. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Barriers and facilitators to dissemination and adoption of precision medicine among Hispanics/Latinos. Canedo JR, Wilkins CH, Senft N, et al. BMC Public Health 2020 May 1;20(1):603. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Out-of-pocket spending for maternity care among women with employer-based insurance, 2008-15. Moniz MH, Fendrick AM, Kolenic GE, et al. Health Aff 2020 Jan;39(1):18-23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Using qualitative methods to explore communication practices in the context of patient care rounds on general care units. Manojlovich M, Harrod M, Hofer TP, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2020 Mar;35(3):839-45. Epub 2019 Dec 12. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Association of online consumer reviews of skilled nursing facilities with patient rehospitalization rates. Ryskina KL, Andy AU, Manges KA, et al. JAMA Netw Open 2020 May;3(5):e204682. Access the abstract on PubMed®.