National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Latest available findings on quality of and access to health care
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Topics
- Adverse Events (1)
- Cardiovascular Conditions (1)
- Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) (3)
- Diabetes (2)
- Disparities (1)
- Elderly (2)
- Evidence-Based Practice (1)
- Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) (2)
- Health Status (1)
- Hospitalization (1)
- Hospitals (1)
- (-) Medicare (12)
- Nursing Homes (1)
- Outcomes (1)
- Patient-Centered Healthcare (1)
- Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (1)
- Patient Adherence/Compliance (2)
- Patient Experience (3)
- Patient Safety (2)
- Payment (2)
- Provider Performance (5)
- Quality Improvement (2)
- Quality Indicators (QIs) (4)
- (-) Quality Measures (12)
- Quality of Care (7)
- Racial and Ethnic Minorities (1)
- Rehabilitation (1)
- Sepsis (1)
- Surgery (1)
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 12 of 12 Research Studies DisplayedWaters TM, Burns N, Kaplan CM
Combined impact of medicare's hospital pay for performance programs on quality and safety outcomes is mixed.
The authors examined the combined impact of Medicare's pay for performance (P4P) programs on clinical areas and populations targeted by the programs, as well as those outside their focus. Using HCUP data, and consistent with previous studies for individual programs, they detected minimal, if any, effect of Medicare's hospital P4P programs on quality and safety. They recommended a redesigning of the P4P programs before continuing to expand them.
AHRQ-funded; HS025148.
Citation: Waters TM, Burns N, Kaplan CM .
Combined impact of medicare's hospital pay for performance programs on quality and safety outcomes is mixed.
BMC Health Serv Res 2022 Jul 28;22(1):958. doi: 10.1186/s12913-022-08348-w..
Keywords: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Medicare, Payment, Provider Performance, Hospitals, Quality Indicators (QIs), Quality Measures, Quality Improvement, Quality of Care, Patient Safety
Zrelak PA, Utter GH, McDonald KM
Incorporating harms into the weighting of the revised Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety for Selected Indicators Composite (Patient Safety Indicator 90).
The purpose of this study was to reweight AHRQ’s Patient Safety for Selected Indicators Composite (Patient Safety Indicator 90) from weights based solely on the frequency of component Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) to those that incorporate excess harm reflecting patients' preferences for outcome-related health states. Findings showed that including harms in the weighting scheme changed individual component weights from the original frequency-based weighting. In the reweighted composite, PSIs 11, 13, and 12 contributed the greatest harm. The investigators concluded that reformulation of PSI 90 with harm-based weights is feasible and results in satisfactory reliability and discrimination.
AHRQ-authored; AHRQ-funded; 290201200003I.
Citation: Zrelak PA, Utter GH, McDonald KM .
Incorporating harms into the weighting of the revised Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety for Selected Indicators Composite (Patient Safety Indicator 90).
Health Serv Res 2022 Jun;57(3):654-67. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13918..
Keywords: Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Patient Safety, Quality Indicators (QIs), Quality Measures, Quality of Care, Adverse Events, Medicare
Barbash IJ, Davis BS, Yabes JG
Treatment patterns and clinical outcomes after the introduction of the Medicare Sepsis Performance Measure (SEP-1).
This study evaluated the effect of Severe Sepsis and Septic Shock Early Management Bundle (SEP-1) on treatment patterns and patient outcomes. Findings showed that, two years after its implementation, SEP-1 was associated with variable changes in process measures, with the greatest effect being an increase in lactate measurement within 3 hours of sepsis onset. There were small increases in antibiotic administration and fluid administration, a small increase in ICU admissions, and no changes in mortality or discharge to home.
Citation: Barbash IJ, Davis BS, Yabes JG .
Treatment patterns and clinical outcomes after the introduction of the Medicare Sepsis Performance Measure (SEP-1).
Ann Intern Med 2021 Jul;174(7):927-35. doi: 10.7326/m20-5043..
Keywords: Sepsis, Medicare, Outcomes, Quality Measures, Quality of Care
Meyers DJ, Rahman M, Mor V
Association of Medicare Advantage Star Ratings with racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in quality of care.
This cross-sectional study looked at racial/ethnic minority and socioeconomic disparities in ratings for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, which disproportionately enroll these populations. A total of 1,578,564 enrollees were included in this analysis that used 22 measures of quality and satisfaction at the individual enrollee level, aggregated into simulated star ratings from 2-5 stratified by socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity. Low SES enrollees had simulated stratified star ratings 0.5 stars lower than individuals with high SES in the same contract. Black enrollees had simulated star ratings that were 0.3 stars lower and Hispanic enrollees had 0.1 lower simulated star ratings than White enrollees in the same contract. There was a larger difference in ratings with 4.5 to 5-star contracts with Black and Hispanic enrollees with Whites, and no statistical difference in 2.0 to 2.5 star-rated contracts. There was only low correlation between simulated ratings for enrollees of low SES and high SES.
AHRQ-funded; HS02705101.
Citation: Meyers DJ, Rahman M, Mor V .
Association of Medicare Advantage Star Ratings with racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in quality of care.
JAMA Health Forum 2021 Jun;2(6):e210793..
Keywords: Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS), Medicare, Patient Experience, Disparities, Quality Measures, Provider Performance, Quality of Care, Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Cary MP, Prvu Bettger J, Jarvis JM
Successful community discharge following postacute rehabilitation for Medicare beneficiaries: analysis of a patient-centered quality measure.
The purpose of this study was to determine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics as well as health services use associated with successful community discharge. The investigators retrospectively examined 167,664 Medicare beneficiaries discharged from inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) in 2013 to determine the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics as well as health services use associated with successful community discharge.
AHRQ-funded; HS022134.
Citation: Cary MP, Prvu Bettger J, Jarvis JM .
Successful community discharge following postacute rehabilitation for Medicare beneficiaries: analysis of a patient-centered quality measure.
Health Serv Res 2018 Aug;53(4):2470-82. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12796..
Keywords: Elderly, Medicare, Patient-Centered Healthcare, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Rehabilitation, Quality Indicators (QIs), Quality Measures
Suckow BD, Goodney PP, Columbo JA
National trends in open surgical, endovascular, and branched-fenestrated endovascular aortic aneurysm repair in Medicare patients.
Open repair effectively prevents rupture for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) and is commonly studied as a metric reflecting hospital and surgeon expertise in cardiovascular care. However, given recent advances in endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR), such as branched-fenestrated EVAR, it is unknown how commonly open surgical repair is still used in everyday practice. This study analyzed trends in open AAA repair, EVAR, and branched-fenestrated EVAR for AAA in Medicare beneficiaries from 2003 to 2013.
AHRQ-funded; HS021581.
Citation: Suckow BD, Goodney PP, Columbo JA .
National trends in open surgical, endovascular, and branched-fenestrated endovascular aortic aneurysm repair in Medicare patients.
J Vasc Surg 2018 Jun;67(6):1690-97.e1. doi: 10.1016/j.jvs.2017.09.046..
Keywords: Cardiovascular Conditions, Medicare, Provider Performance, Quality Measures, Surgery
Hatfield LA, Zaslavsky AM
Separable covariance models for health care quality measures across years and topics.
Public quality reports for Medicare Advantage health plans include 11 measures of patient experiences reported in the annual Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems surveys. To summarize associations among measures and years, the authors model the variance-covariance matrix governing the plan-level vectors of yearly quality measures as a Kronecker product of an across-measure matrix and an across-year matrix, or a sum of such Kronecker products.
AHRQ-funded; HS016978.
Citation: Hatfield LA, Zaslavsky AM .
Separable covariance models for health care quality measures across years and topics.
Stat Med 2018 May 30;37(12):2053-66. doi: 10.1002/sim.7656..
Keywords: Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS), Quality Measures, Quality of Care, Patient Experience, Medicare
Eze-Ajoku E, Lavoie M, DeCamp M
Exploring the evidence base behind quality measures.
This study examined the strength of evidence behind quality measures used in Medicare’s 2016 Shared Savings Program. These measures apply to more than 430 accountable care organizations (ACOs). Differences existed in the grading systems used and the evidentiary strength. Based on average ACO performance, performance appeared to be lower in the moderate evidence category (overall average, 61 percent) compared to the high evidence category (overall average, 77 percent).
AHRQ-funded; HS023684.
Citation: Eze-Ajoku E, Lavoie M, DeCamp M .
Exploring the evidence base behind quality measures.
Am J Med Qual 2018 May/Jun;33(3):321-22. doi: 10.1177/1062860617721645.
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Keywords: Evidence-Based Practice, Medicare, Payment, Provider Performance, Quality Measures
Ryskina KL, Konetzka RT, Werner RM
Association between 5-Star nursing home report card ratings and potentially preventable hospitalizations.
The goal of this study was to test whether the improvements in nursing homes’ 5-star ratings were correlated with reductions in rates of hospitalization; the researchers’ hypothesis was that increased attention to ratings motivated nursing homes to make changes to improve ratings but did not affect hospitalization rate, resulting in a weakened association between ratings and hospitalizations. 2007-2010 Medicare hospital claims and nursing home clinical assessment data were used to compare the correlation between nursing homes’ ratings and hospitalization rates. Correlation weakened slightly after the ratings became publicly available. The researchers conclude that improvements in nursing home ratings after the release of Medicare's 5-star rating system were not accompanied by improvements in a broader measure of outcomes for post-acute care patients and, although this dissociation may be due to additional factors, the 5-star ratings became less meaningful as an indicator of nursing home quality for these patients.
AHRQ-funded; HS021861.
Citation: Ryskina KL, Konetzka RT, Werner RM .
Association between 5-Star nursing home report card ratings and potentially preventable hospitalizations.
Inquiry 2018 Jan-Dec;55:46958018787323. doi: 10.1177/0046958018787323..
Keywords: Elderly, Nursing Homes, Medicare, Quality Indicators (QIs), Provider Performance, Quality Measures, Hospitalization, Quality of Care
Hatfield LA, Zaslavsky AM
Implications of variation in the relationships between beneficiary characteristics and Medicare Advantage CAHPS measures.
The researchers studied how differences in quality score adjustments across Medicare Advantage contracts change comparisons for individuals and contracts. They found that, for average consumers, standard adjustment is sufficient to represent variation in contract quality standardized to a common population. For people with characteristics far from average, personalized reporting using their characteristics and contract-specific coefficients can substantially change the expected quality measures across contracts.
AHRQ-funded; HS016978.
Citation: Hatfield LA, Zaslavsky AM .
Implications of variation in the relationships between beneficiary characteristics and Medicare Advantage CAHPS measures.
Health Serv Res 2017 Aug;52(4):1310-29. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12544.
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Keywords: Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS), Medicare, Health Status, Patient Experience, Quality of Care, Quality Improvement, Quality Measures
Schmittdiel JA, Nichols GA, Dyer W
Health care system-level factors associated with performance on Medicare STAR adherence metrics in a large, integrated delivery system.
The researchers examined the association of Medicare STAR adherence metrics with system-wide factors for patients with diabetes. They found that the strongest predictor of achieving STAR-defined medication adherence for patients with diabetes was a greater days’ supply of medications. Other important factors were use of a mail order pharmacy, lower copayments and lower annual individual out-of-pocket maximums.
AHRQ-funded; HS019859
Citation: Schmittdiel JA, Nichols GA, Dyer W .
Health care system-level factors associated with performance on Medicare STAR adherence metrics in a large, integrated delivery system.
Med Care. 2015 Apr;53(4):332-7. doi: 10.1097/mlr.0000000000000328..
Keywords: Medicare, Diabetes, Patient Adherence/Compliance, Quality Measures
Schmittdiel J, Raebel M, Dyer W
Medicare Star excludes diabetes patients with poor CVD risk factor control.
This study is designed to improve understanding of novel CMS quality measures (adherence to antihypertensives, antihyperlipidemics, and oral antihyperglycemics) by assessing the proportion of Medicare patients with diabetes who are excluded from the Medicare Star medication adherence metrics due to early nonadherence and insulin use. Medicare’s STAR measures are used to evaluate the performance of Medicare Advantage plans.
AHRQ-funded; HS019859
Citation: Schmittdiel J, Raebel M, Dyer W .
Medicare Star excludes diabetes patients with poor CVD risk factor control.
Am J Manag Care. 2014 Dec; 20(12):e573-81..
Keywords: Medicare, Diabetes, Quality Measures, Patient Adherence/Compliance