System-Affiliated Rural Hospitals Not Necessarily Immune From Risk of Closure

AHRQ Stats: Opioid Use by Gender

In 2018-2019, 8.7 percent of nonelderly adults, on average, filled at least one outpatient opioid prescription. Women were more likely than men to have any opioid use (10.3 percent vs. 7.0 percent) and to have frequent opioid use (2.7 percent vs. 1.8 percent) during the year. (Source: AHRQ, Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #542, Any Use and “Frequent Use” of Opioids among Non-Elderly Adults in 2018-2019, by Socioeconomic Characteristics.)

Today's Headlines:

• System-Affiliated Rural Hospitals Not Necessarily Immune From Risk of Closure.
• Register for Sept. 22 Virtual Research Meeting on Enhancing Equity in Healthcare Experiences.
• Now Available: Updated Social Determinants of Health Database.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Apply by Aug. 12: AHRQ Seeks New Director of Patient Safety.
• Searchable AHRQ Database Provides Access to Health Services Research Findings.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

System-Affiliated Rural Hospitals Not Necessarily Immune From Risk of Closure

While affiliation with a health system may protect financially unstable rural hospitals from closure, an AHRQ-funded study in JAMA Health Forum has found that health system affiliation increases closure risk for financially stable hospitals. Researchers identified 2,237 rural hospitals that were either affiliated with a health system or independently operated to determine the impact of affiliation on closure risk. The percentage of hospitals not affiliated with a health system declined from 68.9 percent in 2007 to 47 percent in 2019. Hospitals reporting financial hardship in 2007 were twice as likely to close between 2007 and 2019 if they remained independent. However, for hospitals that were financially stable initially, health system affiliation doubled their likelihood of closing. While affiliation appears to offer some protection to hospitals experiencing financial hardship, it also appears to increase closure risk for those that would otherwise remain financially stable. Policies to protect care access in rural communities regardless of affiliation should consider this data, study authors concluded.

Register for Sept. 22 Virtual Research Meeting on Enhancing Equity in Healthcare Experiences

Registration is open for a virtual research meeting on Sept 22 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET to share and discuss research on how different groups of patients experience the delivery of healthcare. Speakers will discuss how AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems and other patient experience surveys can contribute to a better understanding of disparities in patient experience; challenges faced by researchers, survey users and data analysts in using patient experience surveys to identify and address disparities; and optimizing the use of patient experience surveys to achieve greater equity in healthcare.

Now Available: Updated Social Determinants of Health Database

AHRQ’s Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Database has been updated and now provides a central source for  community-level SDOH data at the county, ZIP code and census tract levels. This “one stop” approach can help remove data barriers that may slow progress on research and delay interventions to improve health outcomes. Developed with funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Trust Fund, the SDOH database is designed to enhance ongoing data collection and analysis efforts by providing standardized, well-documented, easy-to-use, linkable data spanning the SDOH domains of social context, economic context, education, healthcare and physical infrastructure.

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:

• Trends in adverse event rates in hospitalized patients, 2010-2019.
• Development of a multicomponent intervention to decrease racial bias among healthcare staff.
• Factors influencing medication errors in the prehospital paramedic environment: a mixed method systematic review.
• Predictors and outcomes of patient safety culture: a cross-sectional comparative study.

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).

Apply by Aug. 12: AHRQ Seeks New Director of Patient Safety

AHRQ is seeking applicants to serve as director of the agency’s Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS). The CQuIPS director serves as a key adviser to the AHRQ director and is a member of the AHRQ’s Senior Leadership Team. The CQuIPS director will plan and direct a comprehensive research agenda to evaluate the nation’s healthcare quality and safety. Other responsibilities include overseeing research to assess consumer and provider perceptions of healthcare culture, services and systems, and developing and testing measures, tools and methods to evaluate and improve safety and quality. The CQuIPS director also serves as the agency’s patient safety spokesperson. A clinical background is preferred.  Aug. 12 is the application deadline. Learn more about this vacancy and others at AHRQ:

• Social Science Analyst, Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. Application deadline: Aug. 9.
• Supervisory Health Scientist Administrator, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. Application deadline: Aug. 15.
• Supervisory Physician – Division Director, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. Application deadline: Aug. 23.

Searchable AHRQ Database Provides Access to Health Services Research Findings

Researchers looking for the latest research on topics ranging from diagnostic safety to primary care to health information technology can find it in AHRQ’s Research Studies database. This resource offers summaries of more than 10,000 published articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers. It includes summaries of journal articles, book chapters and working papers from 2013 to present. Updated monthly, the resource allows searching by keyword and provides links to journal abstracts. Access the database.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Improving screening, treatment, and intervention for unhealthy alcohol use in primary care through clinic, practice-based research network, and health plan partnerships: protocol of the ANTECEDENT study. Singh AN, Sanchez V, Kenzie ES, et al. PLoS One 2022 Jun 28;17(6):e0269635. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Development and evaluation of a remote training strategy for the implementation of mental health evidence-based practices in rural schools: pilot study protocol. Eiraldi R, McCurdy BL, Khanna MS, et al. Pilot Feasibility Stud 2022 Jun 17;8(1):128. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Is the recent surge in physician-hospital consolidation finally producing cost-savings? Encinosa W, Nguyen P. J Gen Intern Med 2022 Apr 27. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Configuration and delivery of primary care in rural and urban settings. Fraze TK, Lewis VA, Wood A, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2022 Mar 9. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Usability of a perioperative medication-related clinical decision support software application: a randomized controlled trial. Nanji KC, Garabedian PM, Langlieb ME, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2022 Jul 12;29(8):1416-24. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Equity and the hazard of veiled injustice: a methodological reflection on risk adjustment. Kleinman LC, Howell EA. Pediatrics 2022 Mar;149(Suppl 3). Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Evaluating a patient safety learning laboratory to create an interdisciplinary ecosystem for health care innovation. Atkinson MK, Benneyan JC, Bambury EA, et al. Health Care Manage Rev 2022 Jul-Sep;47(3):E50-E61. Epub 2022 Feb 3. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Clinical decision support for fall prevention: defining end-user needs. Rice H, Garabedian PM, Shear K, et al. Appl Clin Inform 2022 May;13(3):647-55. Epub 2022 Jun 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.