National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
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AHRQ Research Studies
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Research Studies is a compilation of published research articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers.
Results
1 to 25 of 191 Research Studies DisplayedScally CP, Yin H, Birkmeyer JD
Comparing perioperative processes of care in high and low mortality centers performing pancreatic surgery.
The researchers compared high and low mortality hospitals in order to identify differences in patient care impacting safety. They concluded that high and low mortality hospitals both have high compliance with common quality measures; however, high mortality hospitals performed worse in other areas of perioperative care, indicating possible targets for quality improvement efforts.
AHRQ-funded; HS020937.
Citation: Scally CP, Yin H, Birkmeyer JD .
Comparing perioperative processes of care in high and low mortality centers performing pancreatic surgery.
J Surg Oncol 2015 Dec;112(8):866-71. doi: 10.1002/jso.24085.
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Keywords: Surgery, Mortality, Quality Improvement, Outcomes, Patient Safety
Almario CV, Chey WD, Iriana S
Computer versus physician identification of gastrointestinal alarm features.
This study's objective was to compare the number of alarms documented by physicians during usual care vs. that collected by a computer algorithm called Automated Evaluation of Gastrointestinal Symptoms (AEGIS). AEGIS identified more patients with positive alarm features compared to physicians and also documented more positive alarms. Moreover, clinicians documented only 30% of the positive alarms self-reported by patients through AEGIS.
AHRQ-funded; HS000046.
Citation: Almario CV, Chey WD, Iriana S .
Computer versus physician identification of gastrointestinal alarm features.
Int J Med Inform 2015 Dec;84(12):1111-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2015.07.006.
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Keywords: Clinical Decision Support (CDS), Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Digestive Disease and Health, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Patient Safety
Murray MT, Neu N, Cohen B
Developing case definitions for health care-associated infections for pediatric long-term care facilities.
The researchers performed a pilot study to assess the utility of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America/CDC surveillance case definitions for children in pediatric long-term care facilities (pLTCFs). They concluded that the current surveillance definitions for healthcare-acquired infections in adult long-term care appear to have limited utility for the pLTC population.
AHRQ-funded; HS021470.
Citation: Murray MT, Neu N, Cohen B .
Developing case definitions for health care-associated infections for pediatric long-term care facilities.
Clin Pediatr 2015 Dec;54(14):1380-2. doi: 10.1177/0009922815599379..
Keywords: Children/Adolescents, Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), Long-Term Care, Patient Safety, Children/Adolescents
Etchegaray JM, Thomas EJ
Engaging employees: the importance of high-performance work systems for patient safety.
The researchers developed and tested survey items that measure high-performance work systems (HPWSs), reported psychometric characteristics of the survey, and examined associations between HPWSs and teamwork culture, safety culture, and overall patient safety grade. They concluded that the HPWSs survey was reliable, distinct from safety culture and teamwork culture based on a confirmatory factor analysis.
AHRQ-funded; HS017145.
Citation: Etchegaray JM, Thomas EJ .
Engaging employees: the importance of high-performance work systems for patient safety.
J Patient Saf 2015 Dec;11(4):221-7. doi: 10.1097/pts.0000000000000076.
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Keywords: Patient Safety, Quality of Care, Teams
Liang C, Gong Y
Enhancing patient safety event reporting by K-nearest neighbor classifier.
The debate on structured or unstructured data entry reveals not only a trade-off problem among data accuracy, completeness, and timeliness, but also a technical gap on text mining. The reesarchers suggested a text classification method for predicting subject categories. Their results demonstrated the feasibility of their system and indicated the advantage of such an application to raise data quality and clinical decision support in reporting patient safety events.
AHRQ-funded; HS022895.
Citation: Liang C, Gong Y .
Enhancing patient safety event reporting by K-nearest neighbor classifier.
Stud Health Technol Inform 2015;218:40603.
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Keywords: Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Public Reporting, Clinical Decision Support (CDS), Health Information Technology (HIT), Data
Whicher D, Wu AW
Ethics review of survey research: a mandatory requirement for publication?
The authors provided guidance for journals to consider when making determinations about the necessity of ethical review for survey research projects. They stated that in situations where there is greater than minimal risk of informational or psychological harms, the survey research should have received institutional ethics oversight. They also specified that survey research projects that enroll vulnerable individuals with diminished autonomy should receive institutional ethics oversight.
AHRQ-funded; HS000029.
Citation: Whicher D, Wu AW .
Ethics review of survey research: a mandatory requirement for publication?
Patient 2015 Dec;8(6):477-82. doi: 10.1007/s40271-015-0141-0.
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Keywords: Evidence-Based Practice, Policy, Patient Safety, Research Methodologies
Parker SH
Human factors science: Brief history and applications to healthcare.
This section will define the science of human factors, its origins, its impact on safety in other domains, and its impact and potential for impact on patient safety.
Patient Safety, Medical Errors, Health Care Quality
Citation: Parker SH .
Human factors science: Brief history and applications to healthcare.
Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care 2015 Dec;45(12):390-4. doi: 10.1016/j.cppeds.2015.10.002.
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Keywords: Patient Safety, Medical Errors, Quality of Care
Rehder KJ, Giuliano JS, Jr., Napolitano N
Increased occurrence of tracheal intubation-associated events during nights and weekends in the PICU.
Little is known about how the incidence of tracheal intubation-associated events is affected by the time of day, day of the week, or presence of in-hospital attending-level intensivists. After analyzing 5,096 tracheal intubation courses from the prospective multicenter National Emergency Airway Registry for Children, the researchers found that a higher occurrence of tracheal intubation-associated events was observed during nights and weekends, due primarily to emergent intubations.
AHRQ-funded; HS022464; HS021583.
Citation: Rehder KJ, Giuliano JS, Jr., Napolitano N .
Increased occurrence of tracheal intubation-associated events during nights and weekends in the PICU.
Crit Care Med 2015 Dec;43(12):2668-74. doi: 10.1097/ccm.0000000000001313.
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Keywords: Newborns/Infants, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Adverse Events, Patient Safety, Critical Care
Fernandez R, Grand JA
Leveraging social science-healthcare collaborations to improve teamwork and patient safety.
This article highlights guiding team science principles from the organizational psychology literature that can be applied to the study of teams in healthcare. The authors' goal is to provide some common language and understanding around teams and teamwork. Additionally, they hope to impart an appreciation for the potential synergy present within clinician-social scientist collaborations.
AHRQ-funded; HS020295; HS022458.
Citation: Fernandez R, Grand JA .
Leveraging social science-healthcare collaborations to improve teamwork and patient safety.
Curr Probl Pediatr Adolesc Health Care 2015 Dec;45(12):370-7. doi: 10.1016/j.cppeds.2015.10.005.
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Keywords: Patient Safety, Teams, Quality Improvement, Quality of Care, Medical Errors, Adverse Events
Liang C, Gong Y
On building an ontological knowledge base for managing patient safety events.
The authors developed a semantic web ontology based on the WHO International Classification for Patient Safety (ICPS) and AHRQ Common Formats for patient safety event reporting. The ontology holds potential in enhancing knowledge management and information retrieval, as well as providing flexible data entry and case analysis. They detailed their efforts in data acquisition, transformation, implementation and initial evaluation of the ontology.
AHRQ-funded; HS022895.
Citation: Liang C, Gong Y .
On building an ontological knowledge base for managing patient safety events.
Stud Health Technol Inform 2015;216:202-6.
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Keywords: Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Health Information Technology (HIT)
Dicks KV, Baker AW, Durkin MJ
Short operative duration and surgical site infection risk in hip and knee arthroplasty procedures.
The purpose of this paper was to determine the association between shorter operative duration and surgical site infection (SSI) and also between surgeon median operative duration and SSI risk among first-time hip and knee arthroplasties. The researchers concluded that short operative durations were not associated with a higher SSI risk for knee or hip arthroplasty procedures in their analysis.
AHRQ-funded; HS023866.
Citation: Dicks KV, Baker AW, Durkin MJ .
Short operative duration and surgical site infection risk in hip and knee arthroplasty procedures.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2015 Dec;36(12):1431-6. doi: 10.1017/ice.2015.222.
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Keywords: Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), Orthopedics, Patient Safety, Adverse Events, Surgery, Injuries and Wounds
Slagle JM, Anders S, Porterfield E
Significant physiological disturbances associated with non-routine event containing and routine anesthesia cases.
The researchers sought to compare anesthesia providers' reporting of non-routine events (NREs) with the incidence of significant physiological disturbances (SPDs) detected via retrospective videotape review. They concluded that SPDs occur more often in NRE-containing cases. The incidence of approximately one NRE-independent SPD per case was similar in NRE-containing and routine case.
AHRQ-funded; HS011375.
Citation: Slagle JM, Anders S, Porterfield E .
Significant physiological disturbances associated with non-routine event containing and routine anesthesia cases.
J Patient Saf 2015 Dec;11(4):198-203. doi: 10.1097/pts.0000000000000081.
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Keywords: Patient Safety, Adverse Events, Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Medication
Okafor NG, Doshi PB, Miller SK
Voluntary medical incident reporting tool to improve physician reporting of medical errors in an emergency department.
A web-based, password-protected tool was developed by members of a quality assurance committee for ED providers to report incidents that they believe could impact patient safety. The researchers found that the utilization of this system in one residency program with two academic sites resulted in an increase from 81 reported incidents in 2009, the first year of use, to 561 reported incidents in 2012.
AHRQ-funded; HS017586.
Citation: Okafor NG, Doshi PB, Miller SK .
Voluntary medical incident reporting tool to improve physician reporting of medical errors in an emergency department.
West J Emerg Med 2015 Dec;16(7):1073-8. doi: 10.5811/westjem.2015.8.27390.
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Keywords: Emergency Department, Adverse Events, Medical Errors, Patient Safety, Public Reporting, Quality of Care
Chopra V, Saint S
Vascular catheter infections: time to get technical.
Combining technical and socioadaptive factors within a bundle of best practices has substantially reduced catheter-related bloodstream infections in the past decade, but which elements of this bundle are most responsible for reducing catheter infections? Although a key technical solution should become the standard of care to prevent vascular catheter infections, the authors recommended getting even more technical to prevent other health-care-associated infections.
AHRQ-funded; HS022835.
Citation: Chopra V, Saint S .
Vascular catheter infections: time to get technical.
Lancet 2015 Nov 21;386(10008):2034-36. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(15)00245-7.
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Keywords: Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI), Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), Patient Safety, Prevention
Mohan V, Scholl G, Gold JA
Intelligent simulation model to facilitate EHR training.
The authors proposed Six Principles that are EHR-agnostic and provide the framework for the development of an intelligent simulation model that can optimize EHR training by replicating real-world clinical conditions and appropriate cognitive loads.
AHRQ-funded; HS021637.
Citation: Mohan V, Scholl G, Gold JA .
Intelligent simulation model to facilitate EHR training.
AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2015 Nov 5;2015:925-32.
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Keywords: Education: Continuing Medical Education, Health Information Technology (HIT), Patient Safety, Training, Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
Dykes PC, Stade D, Dalal A
Strategies for managing mobile devices for use by hospitalized inpatients.
The authors implemented the PROSPECT (Promoting Respect and Ongoing Safety through Patient-centeredness, Engagement, Communication and Technology) project at Brigham and Women's Hospital. The goal of PROSPECT is to transform the hospital environment by providing a suite of e-tools to facilitate teamwork. In this paper, the authors described decisions and challenges faced and related the strategies used and lessons learned.
AHRQ-funded; HS023535.
Citation: Dykes PC, Stade D, Dalal A .
Strategies for managing mobile devices for use by hospitalized inpatients.
AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2015 Nov 5;2015:522-31.
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Keywords: Communication, Inpatient Care, Patient and Family Engagement, Patient Safety, Teams
Melnick ER
How to make less more: empathy can fill the gap left by reducing unnecessary care.
The author argues that regardless of how overuse of medical services is curtailed, it must be replaced with empathic care. Empathy in patient care is the “cognitive attribute that involves an understanding of patients’ experiences, concerns, and perspectives combined with a capacity to communicate this understanding. Empathic engagement with patients has many benefits. Patients who are engaged by their clinician feel more informed, and more accurately understand the potential benefits and harms of appropriate clinical options.
AHRQ-funded; HS021271.
Citation: Melnick ER .
How to make less more: empathy can fill the gap left by reducing unnecessary care.
BMJ 2015 Nov 4;351:h5831. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h5831..
Keywords: Clinician-Patient Communication, Patient Safety, Patient Experience
Wolfe H, Maltese MR, Niles DE
Blood pressure directed booster trainings improve intensive care unit provider retention of excellent cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills.
The authors incorporated arterial blood pressure (ABP) tracings into Booster Trainings, hypothesizing that ABP-directed CPR Booster Trainings would improve intensive care unit (ICU) provider 3-month retention of excellent CPR skills without need for interval retraining. They found that the ABP-directed CPR booster trainings improved ICU provider 3-month retention of excellent CPR skills without the need for interval retraining.
AHRQ-funded; HS022469; HS022464.
Citation: Wolfe H, Maltese MR, Niles DE .
Blood pressure directed booster trainings improve intensive care unit provider retention of excellent cardiopulmonary resuscitation skills.
Pediatr Emerg Care 2015 Nov;31(11):743-7. doi: 10.1097/pec.0000000000000394.
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Keywords: Blood Pressure, Education: Continuing Medical Education, Intensive Care Unit (ICU), Patient Safety, Training
Gagne JJ, Kesselheim AS, Choudhry NK
Comparative effectiveness of generic versus brand-name antiepileptic medications.
The objective of this study was to compare treatment persistence and rates of seizure-related events in patients who initiate antiepileptic drug (AED) therapy with a generic versus a brand-name product. It concluded that patients who initiated generic AEDs had fewer adverse seizure-related clinical outcomes and longer continuous treatment periods before experiencing a gap than those who initiated brand-name versions.
AHRQ-funded; HS018465.
Citation: Gagne JJ, Kesselheim AS, Choudhry NK .
Comparative effectiveness of generic versus brand-name antiepileptic medications.
Epilepsy Behav 2015 Nov;52(Pt A):14-8. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2015.08.014.
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Keywords: Adverse Drug Events (ADE), Adverse Events, Comparative Effectiveness, Medication, Medication: Safety, Neurological Disorders, Patient Safety
Hignett S, Wolf L, Taylor E
Firefighting to innovation: using human factors and ergonomics to tackle slip, trip, and fall risks in hospitals.
The aim of this study was to use a theoretical model (bench) for human factors and ergonomics (HFE) and a comparison with occupational slips, trips, and falls (STFs) risk management to discuss patient STF interventions (bedside). : Three case studies are used to discuss how HFE has been, or could be, applied to STF risk management.
AHRQ-funded; HS021824.
Citation: Hignett S, Wolf L, Taylor E .
Firefighting to innovation: using human factors and ergonomics to tackle slip, trip, and fall risks in hospitals.
Hum Factors 2015 Nov;57(7):1195-207. doi: 10.1177/0018720815593642.
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Keywords: Patient Safety, Risk, Falls, Hospitals
Britt RC, Scerbo MW, Montano M
Intracorporeal suturing: transfer from fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery to cadavers results in substantial increase in mental workload.
The researchers hypothesized that laparoscopic suturing on genuine bowel would be more challenging than on the Fundamentals of Laparoscopic Surgery (FLS)-simulated bowel as reflected in differences on both suturing and secondary task scores. They found that the increase in mental workload is indexed by both an increase in suturing times and a decrease in the ability to attend to the secondary task.
AHRQ-funded; HS020386.
Citation: Britt RC, Scerbo MW, Montano M .
Intracorporeal suturing: transfer from fundamentals of laparoscopic surgery to cadavers results in substantial increase in mental workload.
Surgery 2015 Nov;158(5):1428-33. doi: 10.1016/j.surg.2015.03.032..
Keywords: Surgery, Patient Safety, Simulation, Training
Grenda TR, Revels SL, Yin H
Lung cancer resection at hospitals with high vs low mortality rates.
The objective of this study was to evaluate perioperative outcomes in patients who underwent lung cancer resection at high-mortality hospitals [HMHs] and low-mortality hospitals [LMHs]) in order to better understand the factors related to differences in mortality rates after lung cancer resection. It concluded that failure-to-rescue rates are higher at HMHs, which may explain the large differences between hospitals in mortality rates following lung cancer resection.
AHRQ-funded; HS000053; HS020937.
Citation: Grenda TR, Revels SL, Yin H .
Lung cancer resection at hospitals with high vs low mortality rates.
JAMA Surg 2015 Nov;150(11):1034-40. doi: 10.1001/jamasurg.2015.2199..
Keywords: Cancer: Lung Cancer, Surgery, Mortality, Outcomes, Patient Safety
Ellis MC, Paugh TA, Dickinson TA
Nadir hematocrit on bypass and rates of acute kidney injury: does sex matter?
Recent literature has suggested that women, although more often exposed to lower nadir hematocrit (Hct), have a lower risk of postoperative renal dysfunction. The researchers assessed whether this relationship held across a large multicenter registry. They found that lower nadir Hct was associated with an increased risk of AKI, and the effect appears to be stronger among men than women.
AHRQ-funded; HS022535; HS022909.
Citation: Ellis MC, Paugh TA, Dickinson TA .
Nadir hematocrit on bypass and rates of acute kidney injury: does sex matter?
Ann Thorac Surg 2015 Nov;100(5):1549-54; discussion 54-5. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2015.05.080..
Keywords: Risk, Cardiovascular Conditions, Surgery, Adverse Events, Patient Safety
Croft LD, Liquori M, Ladd J
The effect of contact precautions on frequency of hospital adverse events.
The researchers sought to determine whether use of contact precautions on hospital ward patients is associated with patient adverse events. They concluded that hospital ward patients on contact precautions were less likely to experience noninfectious adverse events during their hospital stay than patients not on contact precautions.
AHRQ-funded; HS018111.
Citation: Croft LD, Liquori M, Ladd J .
The effect of contact precautions on frequency of hospital adverse events.
Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2015 Nov;36(11):1268-74. doi: 10.1017/ice.2015.192.
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Keywords: Adverse Events, Patient Safety, Prevention, Hospitals
Wechsler ME, Yawn BP, Fuhlbrigge AL
Anticholinergic vs long-acting beta-agonist in combination with inhaled corticosteroids in Black adults with asthma: the BELT randomized clinical trial.
The researchers compared the effectiveness and safety of tiotropium vs long-acting beta agonists (LABAs), when used with inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) in black adults with asthma. They found that among black adults with asthma treated with ICS, adding a LABA did not improve time to asthma exacerbation compared with adding tiotropium. These findings were not affected by polymorphisms at the Arg16Gly locus of ADRB2.
AHRQ-funded; HS019408.
Citation: Wechsler ME, Yawn BP, Fuhlbrigge AL .
Anticholinergic vs long-acting beta-agonist in combination with inhaled corticosteroids in Black adults with asthma: the BELT randomized clinical trial.
JAMA 2015 Oct 27;314(16):1720-30. doi: 10.1001/jama.2015.13277..
Keywords: Comparative Effectiveness, Patient Safety, Asthma, Medication