Study Draws Link Between Parents’ Comfort With English, Adverse Events for Children

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Today's Headlines:

• Study Draws Link Between Parents’ Comfort With English, Adverse Events for Children.
• AHRQ Views Blog: Organizational Health Literacy More Essential Than Ever for Preventing and Managing Chronic Disease.
• Use of Computerized Physician Order Entry Increasing but Still Lags in Small Clinics.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Webinar on Patient Safety Organizations’ Value for Hospitals During COVID-19.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

Study Draws Link Between Parents’ Comfort With English, Adverse Events for Children

Children whose parents are not comfortable speaking English are twice as likely to be harmed when they are hospitalized, a new study has found. The study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is the first to associate limited comfort with English and adverse events in hospitalized children. Researchers surveyed 1,666 parents of children hospitalized at one of seven North American hospitals. They found that nearly 9 percent of parents expressed limited comfort with English. The odds of an adverse event occurring among children of those parents were 2.1 times as high as for children whose parents expressed comfort with English. The authors called for targeted strategies to improve communication and safety for this vulnerable group of children. The study was supported by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute with assistance from AHRQ. Access the abstract.

AHRQ Views Blog: Organizational Health Literacy More Essential Than Ever for Preventing and Managing Chronic Disease

October is Health Literacy Month, and a new AHRQ Views blog post highlights the agency’s commitment to ensuring that patients and their caregivers are able to find, understand and act upon health information and services. While encouraging researchers to submit applications to study organizational health literacy, the authors note that Healthy People 2030—the program that sets objectives to improve the nation’s health—has declared health literacy a foundational principle and overarching goal. AHRQ’s many tools help providers implement organizational health literacy strategies, such as training staff and evaluating their health literacy skills, instituting policies and processes to implement evidence-based approaches, and systematically assessing written materials. Access the blog post by Cindy Brach, M.P.P., a senior healthcare researcher in AHRQ’s Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement (CEPI), and Arlene S. Bierman, M.D., M.A., CEPI director. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address and select “AHRQ Views Blog.”

Use of Computerized Physician Order Entry Increasing but Still Lags in Small Clinics

The use of computerized physician order entries increased 9 percent in ambulatory care clinics between 2014 and 2016, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in BMC Health Services Research. In their analysis of data from more than 19,000 primary care and specialty care clinics, researchers also found that larger clinics and those affiliated with multihospital health systems were more likely to report using these functions, which include computerized ordering of imaging tests, laboratory orders, referrals to other providers and electronic medication prescribing. The authors noted that use of computerized physician order entry is associated with improvements in safety and efficiency and suggested that slower adoption rates in smaller clinics and those affiliated with single hospital systems may harm patient outcomes. 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:

• Complications associated with the anesthesia transport of pediatric patients: an analysis of the Wake Up Safe database.
• Impact of pharmacist interventions on medication errors in hospitalized pediatric patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
• Association of current opioid use with serious adverse events among older adult survivors of breast cancer.

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).

Webinar on Patient Safety Organizations’ Value for Hospitals During COVID-19

The webinar “Working with Patient Safety Organizations (PSOs): The Value for Hospitals During COVID-19 and Beyond” will introduce hospital leaders to the PSO program; provide participating hospitals’ insights on the value of PSOs; offer examples of PSOs helping hospitals during the COVID-19 epidemic; and demonstrate how PSOs can help hospitals avert safety events and lower costs. Access more information.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Harmonized outcome measures for use in depression patient registries and clinical practice. Gliklich RE, Leavy MB, Cosgrove L, et al. Ann Intern Med 2020 Jun 16;172(12):803-9. Epub 2020 May 12. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Association of race/ethnicity with emergency department destination of emergency medical services transport. Hanchate AD, Paasche-Orlow MK, Baker WE, et al. JAMA Netw Open 2019 Sep 4;2(9):e1910816. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Practice level factors associated with enhanced engagement with practice facilitators; findings from the Heart Health Now study. Halladay JR, Weiner BJ, In Kim J, et al. BMC Health Serv Res 2020 Jul 28;20(1):695. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Using electronic health record data to study Latino immigrant populations in health services research. Heintzman J, Marino M, Clark K, et al. J Immigr Minor Health 2020 Aug;22(4):754-61. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Prehospital and posthospital fall injuries in older US adults. Hoffman GJ, Tinetti ME, Ha J, et al. JAMA Netw Open 2020 Aug 3;3(8):e2013243. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Social disadvantage, access to care, and disparities in physical functioning among children hospitalized with respiratory illness. Desai AD, Zhou C, Haaland W, et al. J Hosp Med 2020 Apr;15(4):211-8. Epub 2020 Feb 11. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Trends in 30-day readmission for Medicaid and privately insured pediatric patients: 2010-2017. Bucholz EM, Schuster MA, Toomey SL. Pediatrics 2020 Aug;146(2). Epub 2020 Jul 1. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Prenatal care redesign: creating flexible maternity care models through virtual care. Peahl AF, Smith RD, Moniz MH. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2020 Sep;223(3):389.e1-.e10. Epub 2020 May 17. Access the abstract on PubMed®.