Contents

Feature Story

• Health information technology improves care and saves lives

Health Information Technology

• Acceptance of "smart" intravenous infusion pumps is growing among nurses, but challenges remain
• E-prescribing for managing medication refills has not reached its full potential
• A customized computer drug alert requiring active provider response is no more effective than a passive alert
• Compliance is low for computer alerts recommending conversion from intravenous to oral medications

Patient Safety and Quality

• Most acute-care hospitals follow national guidelines for the prevention and treatment of MRSA infections
• Hospitalists modestly improve quality of care
• Greater use of preventive measures needed for hospitalized patients with suspected venous thromboembolism

Outcomes/Effectiveness Research

• Serious complications from bariatric surgery are fewer when done by high-volume hospitals and surgeons
• Treatment for blocked carotid arteries varies depending on where you live
• Community hospitals care for psychiatric patients in medical-surgical beds when psychiatric units are full

Chronic Disease

• Patients taking only salmeterol seen in the emergency department for asthma more likely to be hospitalized
• Most patients with type 2 diabetes suffer an adverse event between office visits
• Some personality factors may affect success of chronic illness self-management programs

Disparities/Minority Health

• Black Medicare patients less likely than whites to follow their doctor's instructions on taking medicines
• Black mothers skeptical of relationship between infant sleep position and SIDS

Elderly/Long-Term Care

• Public reporting on quality of care has definite, if modest, effects on nursing home care improvement
• Public report cards prompt nursing homes to spend more on clinical services
• Nursing home hospice patients are not receiving adequate treatment for nonpain symptoms
• Review looks at approaches to improve drug prescribing in nursing homes

HIV/AIDS Research

• Rural counties experience funding and stigma problems in HIV prevention services

Agency News and Notes

• Medical complications add 30 percent to employers' chronic care costs
• Rates of emergency department use greater among women and low-income, older, and rural Americans
• More than half of U.S. employers offered health insurance and about one-third offered dental insurance in 2006
• Dental bills high in California

Announcements

• 2008 HCUP Facts and Figures report provides statistics on hospital visits
• Free patient education videos, pamphlets available in Spanish
• New AHRQ evidence report published on inhaled nitric oxide therapy for preterm infants
• New report on the impact of human factors on home health care quality and safety is available
• New report examines impact of health information technology on workflow in outpatient settings
• New guides on rotator cuff tears in adults are available
• New AHRQ resource available for developing or improving public reporting Web sites

Research Briefs