AHRQ Views Blog: Expanding Telemedicine in the Age of COVID-19

AHRQ Stats: Private Insurance Payments for Auto Accidents

Private insurance was the most common expected payer in 2017 for emergency department treatment of injuries caused by motor vehicle accidents (52 percent). (Source: AHRQ, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #266: Overview of Emergency Department Visits Related to Injuries, by Cause of Injury, 2017.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views Blog: Expanding Telemedicine in the Age of COVID-19.
• Coordination System Effectively Reduces Unscheduled Radiology Orders.
• AHRQ Releases Updated Data on Group Practices Associated With Health Systems.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views Blog: Expanding Telemedicine in the Age of COVID-19

The agency’s essential role in ensuring the effective use of telemedicine now and in the future is highlighted in a new blog post by members of AHRQ’s National Advisory Council. The council provides advice and recommendations to AHRQ's director and to the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services on priorities for a national health services research agenda. In the blog post, members note that while telemedicine is not new, the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly expanded its use and identified significant evidence gaps regarding the platform’s quality and safety. The blog post’s authors—Tina Hernandez-Boussard, Ph.D., M.P.H.; Karen Amstutz, M.D., M.B.A., FAAP; Peter Embi, M.D., M.S., FACP, FACMI; and Edmondo Robinson, M.D. M.B.A., M.S.—echo themes discussed in previous council meetings about the need for AHRQ to study factors that underlie telemedicine’s clinical effectiveness, provider proficiency and patient satisfaction. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address and select “AHRQ Views Blog.”

Coordination System Effectively Reduces Unscheduled Radiology Orders

A system to improve coordination of radiology exams significantly reduced the number that were ordered but not scheduled at a large academic hospital, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. Diagnostic imaging orders that are clinically necessary but not scheduled increase patient risks for delayed diagnoses. The new System for Coordinating Orders for Radiology Exams, or SCORE, was designed to track radiological exams ordered for acute, episodic or follow-up management. It helped reduce unscheduled orders at the urban, 793-bed hospital from nearly 9 percent to just over 4 percent. Of about 450 randomly selected orders that were resolved via SCORE, nearly 57 percent were canceled, 21 percent expired and were never renewed and 11 percent were performed. Access the abstract.

AHRQ Releases Updated Data on Group Practices Associated With Health Systems

A new data file added to AHRQ’s Compendium of U.S. Health Systems provides updated information for 2018 on group practices and their affiliations with the nation’s 637 health systems. The group practice data are publicly available so researchers and policymakers can identify group practices within health systems and then, linking to additional data sources, explore characteristics of the systems and their practices, such as cost and quality of care. In addition, the updated version of the file will allow users to assess trends in the organization and ownership of group practices within systems. The compendium was developed by AHRQ’s Comparative Health System Performance Initiative, which studies how healthcare delivery systems promote evidence-based practices and patient-centered outcomes research in delivering care. Access the new group practice file.

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:

• Linking patient safety culture to quality ratings in the nursing home setting.
• Factors influencing family member perspectives on safety in the intensive care unit: a systematic review.
• Effects of interorganisational information technology networks on patient safety: a realist synthesis.
• Design and Implementation of an analgesia, sedation, and paralysis order set to enhance compliance of pro re nata medication orders with Joint Commission medication management standards in a pediatric ICU.

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 in the Professional Literature

Opioid-related overdose mortality in the era of fentanyl: monitoring a shifting epidemic by person, place, and time. Althoff KN, Leifheit KM, Park JN, et al. Drug Alcohol Depend 2020 Nov 1;216:108321. Epub 2020 Sep 25. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Portable automated surveillance of surgical site infections using natural language processing: development and validation. Bucher BT, Shi J, Ferraro JP, et al. Ann Surg 2020 Oct;272(4):629-36. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Cancer surveillance and preventive services in a diverse sample of breast and colorectal cancer survivors. Glenn BA, Nonzee NJ, Hamilton AS, et al. J Cancer Surviv 2020 Aug 14. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A Medicaid alternative payment model program In Oregon led to reduced volume of imaging services. Lindner S, Kaufman MR, Marino M, et al. Health Aff 2020 Jul;39(7):1194-201. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Development of the uncertainty communication checklist: a patient-centered approach to patient discharge from the emergency department. Rising KL, Powell RE, Cameron KA, et al. Acad Med 2020 Jul;95(7):1026-34. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Identification of postoperative complications using electronic health record data and machine learning. Bronsert M, Singh AB, Henderson WG, et al. Am J Surg 2020 Jul;220(1):114-9. Epub 2019 Oct 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Building capacity for medication assisted treatment in rural primary care Practices: the IT MATTTRs practice team training. Zittleman L, Curcija K, Sutter C, et al. J Prim Care Community Health 2020 Jan-Dec;11:2150132720953723. Epub 2020 Sep 11. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Assessment of disparities in digital access among Medicare beneficiaries and implications for telemedicine. Roberts ET, Mehrotra A. JAMA Intern Med 2020 Oct;180(10):1386-9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.