Ingestion of Illicit Substances Among Young Children Increased Significantly During COVID-19 Pandemic

AHRQ Stats: Low-Risk First Birth Cesarean Delivery by Age

In 2020, 40.3 percent of women aged 35 and older who gave birth for the first time had a cesarean delivery, the highest rate compared with women aged 15 to 19 (15.9 percent), aged 20 to 24 (21.5 percent), aged 25 to 29 (25.6 percent) and aged 30 to 34 (28.9 percent).(Source: AHRQ, 2023 Chartbook on Patient Safety [PDF, 6 MB].)

Today's Headlines:

• Ingestion of Illicit Substances Among Young Children Increased Significantly During COVID-19 Pandemic.
• AHRQ Views Blog: New Guide Offers Strategies To Reduce Clinician Burnout.
• Register Now: June 27 Webinar by National Action Alliance Will Address Workplace Violence.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Explore Careers at AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

Ingestion of Illicit Substances Among Young Children Increased Significantly During COVID-19 Pandemic

Overall ingestion of illicit substances among children younger than 6 increased by nearly 26 percent at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and continued with an almost 2 percent sustained monthly increase in overall ingestions compared with pre-pandemic trends, a study by an AHRQ-supported researcher found. Researchers compared ingestion rates of illicit substances in young children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic by substance type, including amphetamines, benzodiazepines, cannabis, cocaine, ethanol and opioids. They found that cannabis, opioids and ethanol contributed to the immediate increase in ingestion encounters. The sustained monthly relative increase for opioids was at a rate of 1.8 percent. Researchers concluded that additional research is needed to understand the observed increased ingestion rate as well as interventions and policies to address this trend. Access the abstract in JAMA Network Open.

AHRQ Views Blog: New Guide Offers Strategies To Reduce Clinician Burnout

A new resource developed by AHRQ to mitigate burnout among primary care clinicians is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post by Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A. In recent years, physicians have struggled with burnout brought on by more patients with multiple health problems and paperwork requirements for reimbursement challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified these pressures. AHRQ’s resource, Burnout in Primary Care—Assessing and Addressing It in Your Practice (PDF, 1.6 MB), allows clinical teams to tackle burnout according to unique organizational needs. It provides assessment instruments along with tips, guidance and tools from trusted organizations that address clinician and healthcare worker burnout. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Register Now: June 27 Webinar by National Action Alliance Will Address Workplace Violence

Registration is open for a webinar June 27 from 2 to 3 p.m. ET featuring Cammie Chaumont Menendez, Ph.D., M.P.H., a research epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, on the need to prevent violence in healthcare settings. The webinar is part of an HHS series sponsored by the National Action Alliance To Advance Patient Safety, a public–private effort to support healthcare delivery systems’ move toward zero harm. In an April 25 webinar that kicked off the series, AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., described obstacles that must be addressed to improve patient safety, including “workforce burnout, the increased complexity of patient care, and difficulty of sharing best practices.” Access registration for additional National Action Alliance webinars:

• July 25, 2–3 p.m. ET: Involving Patients and Families in Safety.
• Aug. 22, 2–3 p.m. ET: Engaging Boards and Executive Leadership in Safety.

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:

• Integrating implementation science in a quality and patient safety improvement learning collaborative: essential ingredients and impact.
• Barriers and facilitators to improving patient safety learning systems: a systematic review of qualitative studies and meta-synthesis.
• Quality improvement initiative to decrease central line-associated bloodstream infections during the COVID-19 pandemic: a "zero harm" approach.

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).

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:

• Health Scientist Administrator-Scientific Review Officer, Office of Extramural Research, Education and Priority Populations. Application deadline: May 2.
• Physician, Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement. Application deadline: May 5.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Usability testing of an interoperable computerized clinical decision support tool for fall risk management in primary care. Shear K, Rice H, Garabedian PM, et al. Appl Clin Inform 2023 Mar;14(2):212-26. Epub 2023 Jan 4. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Changes to prenatal care visit frequency and telehealth: a systematic review of qualitative evidence. Konnyu KJ, Danilack VA, Adam GP, et al. Obstet Gynecol 2023 Feb;141(2):299-323. Epub 2023 Jan 4. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Greater patient sharing between hospitals is associated with better outcomes for transferred emergency general surgery patients. Fernandes-Taylor S, Yang Q, Yang DY, et al. J Trauma Acute Care Surg 2023 Apr;94(5):592-8. Epub 2023 Nov 18. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Developing and testing an integrated patient mHealth and provider dashboard application system for type 2 diabetes management among Medicaid-enrolled pregnant individuals based on a user-centered approach: mixed-methods study. Fareed N, Swoboda C, Singh P, et al. Digit Health 2023 Jan-Dec;9:20552076221144181. Epub 2023 Jan 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Renal outcomes following intravenous contrast administration in patients with acute kidney injury: a multi-site retrospective propensity-adjusted analysis. Ehmann MR, Mitchell J, Levin S, et al. Intensive Care Med 2023 Feb;49(2):205-15. Epub 2023 Jan 30. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Adoption of innovative therapies across oncology practices-evidence from immunotherapy. Carroll CE, Landrum MB, Wright AA, et al. JAMA Oncol 2023 Mar;9(3):324-33. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Understanding patient and clinician reported nonroutine events in ambulatory surgery. Salwei ME, Anders S, Slagle JM, et al. J Patient Saf 2023 Mar 1;19(2):e38-e45. Epub 2022 Dec 27. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Effect of Patient and Family Centered I-PASS on adverse event rates in hospitalized children with complex chronic conditions. Kuzma N, Khan A, Rickey L, et al. J Hosp Med 2023 Apr;18(4):316-20. Epub 2023 Feb 14. Access the abstract on PubMed®.