AHRQ Views Blog: Long COVID Is a Case Study of Our Fractured Healthcare System
Issue Number
856
March 21, 2023
AHRQ Stats: Leading Causes of Death in 2020
Heart disease and cancer accounted for 168.2 and 144.1 deaths per 100,000 individuals, respectively, in 2020, making them the leading cause of death that year. COVID-19 was the third most common cause at 85.0 deaths per 100,000 people. (Source: AHRQ 2022 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report [PDF, 3.8 MB].)
Today's Headlines:
- AHRQ Views Blog: Long COVID Is a Case Study of Our Fractured Healthcare System.
- Latest Database Launched in AHRQ’s Data Innovations Effort.
- Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
- Health Systems Slightly Outperformed Non-systems on Clinical Quality and Patient Experience, But at Higher Costs and Spending .
- New Resource Helps Primary Care Extension Programs Sustain Funding.
- Explore Careers at AHRQ.
- AHRQ in the Professional Literature.
AHRQ Views Blog: Long COVID Is a Case Study of Our Fractured Healthcare System
In a new AHRQ Views blog post, National Advisory Council Chair Edmondo Robinson, M.D., M.B.A., M.S., discusses the vexing challenges presented by Long COVID while emphasizing AHRQ’s potential to respond to severe gaps that have emerged in our fractured healthcare system. Members of AHRQ’s National Advisory Council, which advises AHRQ’s director on agency activities and priorities, recently authored blog posts that addressed quality of care issues in behavioral health, home health, hospice and long-term care. Dr. Robinson’s new blog highlights AHRQ’s emerging efforts to address Long COVID and notes the agency’s potential to act as a convener and bring together stakeholders to address today’s healthcare challenges. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.
Latest Database Launched in AHRQ’s Data Innovations Effort
As part of AHRQ’s ongoing effort to offer new ways to access, synthesize and use healthcare data, the agency has launched the Physician and Physician Practice Research Database (3P-RD). This new database captures information on physician and physician practice characteristics to help address data gaps in physician information within health services at the state and market levels. The latest addition to the 3P-RD is the Physician Practice files, which offer insights into the characteristics of physician practices in each participating state. Other datasets within the 3P-RD include the Physician Geographic and Physician Practice Geographic files, providing summaries of data at the three-digit zip code level. AHRQ’s Data Innovations resource also includes the Synthetic Healthcare Database for Research (SyH-DR) database and Social Determinants of Health.
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:
- Automated capture of intraoperative adverse events using artificial intelligence: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
- Near-miss events detected using the emergency department trigger tool.
- Medication errors in community pharmacies: evaluation of a standardized safety program.
- Patient and health care professional perspectives on stigma in integrated behavioral health: barriers and recommendations.
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).
Health Systems Slightly Outperformed Non-systems on Clinical Quality and Patient Experience, But at Higher Costs and Spending
In a JAMA study of health systems in 2018, AHRQ-funded researchers found that health system patients received slightly better care on preventive and clinical performance measures, and reported experiencing better care, but incurred higher spending than non-systems patients. Prices for services delivered by system physicians and hospitals were significantly higher than those of non-system providers. Health systems were found varied greatly in size, with other private and large nonprofit systems being the most common type. Systems provided primary care to 41 percent of Medicare beneficiaries and accounted for 40 percent of physicians and 84 percent of acute care beds, and system hospitals and physician practices were larger than those not part of systems.
New Resource Helps Primary Care Extension Programs Sustain Funding
A new AHRQ resource provides guidance for extension programs seeking sustainable funding. Extension programs help primary care practices implement the best evidence to improve care through various strategies including practice facilitation or coaching, health information and technology support, academic detailing and data feedback. To help extension programs address funding challenges, the new resource includes information about:
- Strategies to secure funding.
- Potential funding resources.
- Examples and tips, primarily from AHRQ grantees.
Explore Careers at AHRQ
Join the team that strives to improve healthcare for all Americans by investing in health systems research, creating strategies to support practice improvement and providing data and analytics to identify opportunities for improvement. Current vacancies include:
- Director, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. Application deadline: March 27.
- Supervisory Health Scientist Administrator - Division Director, Office of Extramural Research, Education and Priority Populations/ Division of Research Education. Application deadline: April 3.
- Survey Statistician, Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends. Application deadline: April 4.
- Health Scientist Administrator- Senior Advisor, Office of Extramural Research, Education and Priority Populations, Division of Priority Populations. Application deadline: April 6.
- Health Scientist Administrator, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement, Division of Digital Healthcare Research. Application deadline: April 12.
AHRQ in the Professional Literature
Evaluation of the shared decision-making process scale in cancer screening and medication decisions. Vo H, Valentine KD, Barry MJ, et al. Patient Educ Couns 2023 Mar;108:107617. Epub 2022 Dec 23. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Examining medication ordering errors using AHRQ network of patient safety databases. Grauer A, Rosen A, Applebaum JR, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2023 Jan 30. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Effect of apneic oxygenation with intubation to reduce severe desaturation and adverse tracheal intubation-associated events in critically ill children. Napolitano N, Polikoff L, Edwards L, et al. Crit Care 2023 Jan 17;27(1):26. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Effectiveness of a bite-sized web-based intervention to improve healthcare worker wellbeing: A randomized clinical trial of WISER. Sexton JB, Adair KC, Cui X, et al. Front Public Health 2022 Dec 8;10:1016407. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Social risk adjustment in the hospital readmission reduction program: pitfalls of peer grouping, measurement challenges, and potential solutions. Aswani MS, Roberts ET. Health Serv Res 2023 Feb;58(1):51-9. Epub 2022 Mar 19. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
The association between bundled payment participation and changes in medical episode outcomes among high-risk patients. Liao JM, Wang E, Isidro U, et al. Healthcare 2022 Dec 12;10(12):2510. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Extent of follow-up on abnormal cancer screening in multiple California public hospital systems: a retrospective review. Khoong EC, Rivadeneira NA, Pacca L, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2023 Jan;38(1):21-9. Epub 2022 May 31. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Organization and performance of US health systems. Beaulieu ND, Chernew ME, McWilliams JM, et al. JAMA 2023 Jan 24;329(4):325-35. Access the abstract on PubMed®.