AHRQ-Related Articles, October 31, 2014

Academic Emergency Medicine
Landman A, Shah MN. All HANDDS on deck to translate research findings into improved outcomes. Acad Emerg Med 2014 Sep; 21(9):1039-41. [Comments on AHRQ-funded article by Sasson et al. published in same issue.]

BMJ Quality and Safety
Singer SJ, Tucker AL. The evolving literature on safety WalkRounds: emerging themes and practical messages. BMJ Qual Saf 2014 Oct; 23(10):789-800. [Notes AHRQ's advocacy of safety rounds, citing AHRQ publication, Advances in Patient Safety, 2005.]

GAO Reports
Healthcare transparency: actions needed to improve cost and quality information for consumers. 2014 Oct; GAO-15-11. [Discusses AHRQ's National Quality Measures Clearinghouse^TM (NQMC) and the types of measures presented therein and notes AHRQ's support and dissemination of research on best practices for public reporting of cost and quality information to consumers, citing AHRQ publication, Best Practices in Public Reporting No. 1: How to Effectively Present Health Care Performance Data to Consumers, 2010.]

Generations
Pepin R, Gill LE, Bartels SJ. The paradox of scarcity in a land of plenty: meeting the needs of older adults with mental health and substance use disorders. Generations 2014 Fall; 38(3):6-13. [Cites 2009 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data on costs of mental health services for older adults and notes that AHRQ's Project Re-Engineered Discharge (RED) "has been shown to be highly effective compared to routine discharge procedures".]

Monthly Labor Review
Gworak-Fisher K, Gittleman MB, Moehrle TG. Trends in employment-based health insurance coverage: evidence from the National Compensation Survey. Mon Labor Rev 2014 Oct; online. [Reviews findings from AHRQ-authored articles by Cooper and Schone (Health Aff, 1997) and Vistnes et al. (Health Serv Res, 2012) which use Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS data.]

Transfusion
Red blood cell transfusion thresholds: can we go even lower?  Transfusion 2014 Oct; 54(10 Pt 2):2593-4. [Comments on AHRQ-funded article by Murphy et al. published in same issue.]