AHRQ Views Blog: Addressing Historical Racism and Inequality in American Healthcare

AHRQ Stats

Access more data on this topic in the associated statistical brief.

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views Blog: Addressing Historical Racism and Inequality in American Healthcare.
• New AHRQ Perspective Reviews Ways To Prevent and Reduce the Spread of COVID-19.
• Insufficient Support by Care Partners Increases Risk of Hospitalization for Assisted Living Residents.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Study Shows Assisted Living Regulations Vary Significantly Between States.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.

AHRQ Views Blog: Addressing Historical Racism and Inequality in American Healthcare

AHRQ’s commitment to addressing systemic racism and its impact on the health and well-being of Americans is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post. To do this, the agency will use a broad equity lens that directs us to improve health and healthcare for all in our country who have been marginalized, as called for in the President’s Executive Order on advancing racial equity and support for underserved communities. AHRQ’s contributions going forward will include working to make AHRQ a diverse, equitable and inclusive work environment; revisiting our policies, procedures and the funding announcements we issue with an equity lens; and supporting healthcare systems and professionals in their effort to achieve equity through our work in health services research, practice improvement and data and analytics. Access the blog post, authored by David Meyers, M.D., AHRQ's acting director; Francis Chesley, M.D., director of the agency's Office of Extramural Research, Education, and Priority Populations; and Kamila Mistry, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate director of the Office of Extramural Research, Education, and Priority Populations.

New AHRQ Perspective Reviews Ways To Prevent and Reduce the Spread of COVID-19

A new Perspective from AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) reviews ways to prevent and reduce the spread of COVID-19 while delivering patient care, its impact on healthcare worker safety, medical errors associated with COVID-19 and the reduction of patient safety events. Guideline documents, recommendation statements and other resources or frontline healthcare workers are included. The Perspective highlights options for redesigning care, such as delaying elective procedures or making greater use of telehealth. Institutions may also consider providing healthcare workers strong infection control guidelines as well as enhanced communication and training in the use of personal protection equipment. Recommendations on improved workflow designs, effective surge planning and greater use of telemedicine are included.

Insufficient Support by Care Partners Increases Risk of Hospitalization for Assisted Living Residents

Inadequate or unavailable support by care partners may increase the risk of hospitalization for residents receiving home health services while living in an assisted living facility by as much as 41 percent, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in The Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. While Medicare home health services provide skilled nursing and social work services to reduce hospitalizations, they are only available two to three times per week. Care during coverage gaps is left to family members, assisted living facility staff or privately hired aides. Among more than 740,000 Medicare home health service admissions for assisted living residents in 2017, nearly 61 percent of cases involved inadequate or no care-partner support for treatment and nearly 44 percent involved inadequate or no support for daily living activities. 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:

• Learning from safety incidents in high reliability organizations: a systematic review of learning tools that could be adapted and used in healthcare.
• Has the COVID pandemic strengthened or weakened health care teams? A field guide to healthy workforce best practices.
• SAFER Care: improving caregiver comprehension of discharge instructions.

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).

Study Shows Assisted Living Regulations Vary Significantly Between States

State policies that govern assisted living facilities vary substantially and are associated with significant differences in bed availability, monthly costs and the proportion of Medicaid beneficiaries receiving assisted living services, according to an AHRQ-funded study published in Journal of the American Medical Directors Association. The authors examined regulations for admission and retention, staffing and training, medication management and dementia care for 46 states and the District of Columbia to understand how policies vary, and how market and state generosity measures impact the stringency of regulations. The authors suggest that future studies should examine how regulatory stringency affects access to and care quality in assisted living services. Access the abstract.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Rapid evidence product: Improving Pain Management in the Context of America's Opioid and Substance Use Disorders Crisis.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Therapies for clinically localized prostate cancer: a comparative effectiveness review. Wilt TJ, Ullman KE, Linskens EJ, et al. J Urol 2021 Apr;205(4):967-76. Epub 2020 Dec 22. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Hospital variation in responses to safety warnings about power morcellation in hysterectomy. Xu X, Desai VB, Wright JD, et al. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2020 Dec 24. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Measuring complications of serious pediatric emergencies using ICD-10. Michelson KA, Dart AH, Bachur RG, et al. Health Serv Res 2021 Apr;56(2):225-34. Epub 2020 Dec 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Use of neuroimaging for children with seizure in general and pediatric emergency departments. Cavallaro SC, Monuteaux MC, Chaudhari PP, et al. J Emerg Med 2021 2021 Jan 5;S0736-4679(20)31153-7. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Factors associated with interhospital transfers of emergency general surgery patients from emergency departments. Fernandes-Taylor S, Yang DY, Schumacher J, et al. Am J Emerg Med 2021 Feb;40:83-8. Epub 2020 Dec 13. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Social risks among primary care patients in a large urban health system. Heller CG, Parsons AS, Chambers EC, et al. Am J Prev Med 2020 Apr;58(4):514-25. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Readmissions reduction program: mortality and readmissions for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Puebla Neira DA, Hsu ES, Kuo YF, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2021 Feb 15;203(4):437-46. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Post-acute care use patterns among hospital service areas by older adults in the United States: a cross-sectional study. Dean JM, Hreha K, Hong I, et al. BMC Health Serv Res 2021 Feb 25;21(1):176. Access the abstract on PubMed®.