National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
Latest available findings on quality of and access to health care
Data
- Data Infographics
- Data Visualizations
- Data Tools
- Data Innovations
- All-Payer Claims Database
- Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
- Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS)
- AHRQ Quality Indicator Tools for Data Analytics
- State Snapshots
- United States Health Information Knowledgebase (USHIK)
- Data Sources Available from AHRQ
Search All Research Studies
AHRQ Research Studies Date
Topics
- Ambulatory Care and Surgery (4)
- Cancer (1)
- Care Coordination (1)
- Care Management (1)
- Chronic Conditions (1)
- Clinical Decision Support (CDS) (1)
- Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) (1)
- Data (1)
- Diabetes (1)
- Disparities (2)
- Electronic Health Records (EHRs) (3)
- Evidence-Based Practice (4)
- Healthcare Costs (3)
- Healthcare Delivery (21)
- Health Information Technology (HIT) (5)
- Health Insurance (1)
- Health Services Research (HSR) (4)
- (-) Health Systems (42)
- Hospital Discharge (1)
- Hospitals (11)
- Implementation (3)
- Inpatient Care (1)
- Learning Health Systems (9)
- Medicare (6)
- Organizational Change (2)
- Orthopedics (1)
- Outcomes (1)
- Patient-Centered Healthcare (2)
- Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (1)
- Patient and Family Engagement (1)
- Patient Experience (1)
- Patient Safety (1)
- Payment (3)
- Policy (2)
- Practice Improvement (1)
- Primary Care (4)
- Primary Care: Models of Care (1)
- Provider (2)
- Provider: Physician (1)
- Provider Performance (3)
- Quality Improvement (1)
- Quality Indicators (QIs) (1)
- Quality Measures (1)
- Quality of Care (8)
- Racial and Ethnic Minorities (1)
- Research Methodologies (2)
- Risk (1)
- Rural Health (1)
- Shared Decision Making (3)
- Substance Abuse (1)
- Surgery (3)
- Teams (1)
- Tobacco Use (1)
- Tobacco Use: Smoking Cessation (1)
AHRQ Research Studies
Sign up: AHRQ Research Studies Email updates
Research Studies is a compilation of published research articles funded by AHRQ or authored by AHRQ researchers.
Results
1 to 25 of 42 Research Studies DisplayedHenriksen K, Rodrick D, Grace EN
AHRQ Author: Henriksen K, Rodrick D, Grace EN, Shofer M, Brady, JP
Pursuing patient safety at the intersection of design, systems engineering, and health care delivery research: an ongoing assessment.
This article describes a grant initiative undertaken by AHRQ that brings design, systems engineering, and health care delivery research together to test new ideas that could make health care safer. Based on feedback received from project teams, lessons learned are emerging that find considerable variation among project teams in deploying the methodology and a longer-than-anticipated amount of time in bringing team members from different disciplines together where they learn to communicate and function as a team. Three narratives are generated in terms of what success might look like.
AHRQ-authored.
Citation: Henriksen K, Rodrick D, Grace EN .
Pursuing patient safety at the intersection of design, systems engineering, and health care delivery research: an ongoing assessment.
J Patient Saf 2021 Dec 1;17(8):e1685-e90. doi: 10.1097/pts.0000000000000577..
Keywords: Patient Safety, Healthcare Delivery, Learning Health Systems, Health Systems
Chhabra KR, Sheetz KH, Regenbogen SE
Wide variation in surgical spending within hospital systems: a missed opportunity for bundled payment success.
Researchers sought to measure the extent of variation in episode spending around total hip replacement for fee-for-service Medicare patients within and across hospital systems identified in the American Hospital Association Annual Survey. They found that average episode payments varied nearly as much within hospital systems as they did between the lowest- and highest-cost quintiles of systems, with variation driven by post-acute care utilization.
AHRQ-funded; HS000053.
Citation: Chhabra KR, Sheetz KH, Regenbogen SE .
Wide variation in surgical spending within hospital systems: a missed opportunity for bundled payment success.
Ann Surg 2021 Dec 1;274(6):e1078-e84. doi: 10.1097/sla.0000000000003741..
Keywords: Surgery, Health Systems, Medicare, Healthcare Costs, Hospitals
Baskin AS, Wang T, Miller J
A health systems ethical framework for de-implementation in health care.
De-implementation is the ethical obligation to eliminate health care practices which are unnecessary, lacking in evidence, harmful, and/ or prevent the spending of resources on more beneficial services. The purpose of this study was to apply Krubiner and Hyder’s bioethical framework for health systems activity to the analysis of de-implementation ethics in the broader context of health care systems. The focus was specifically on ethics principles relevant to de-implementation which serve to call for or facilitate low value surgery. The authors identified the 5 health systems principles from Krubiner and Hyder’s 11 most relevant to the topic of de-implementation. These included: evidence and effectiveness, transparency and public engagement, efficiency, responsiveness, and collaboration. The study concluded that a health-systems framework allows for consideration of the factors which impact de-implementation, and gives providers to ability to think about new ways to address barriers to the reduction of low-value care.
AHRQ-funded; HS026030.
Citation: Baskin AS, Wang T, Miller J .
A health systems ethical framework for de-implementation in health care.
J Surg Res 2021 Nov;267:151-58. doi: 10.1016/j.jss.2021.05.006..
Keywords: Health Systems, Healthcare Delivery
Ganguli I, Morden NE, Yang CW
Low-value care at the actionable level of individual health systems.
This study measured and reported low-value care use across and within individual health systems and to identify system characteristics associated with higher use using Medicare administrative data. This retrospective cohort study was conducted using 11,637,763 Medicare beneficiaries in 556 health systems in the AHRQ Compendium of US Health Systems. These Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Parts A and B for at least 12 months in 2016 or 2017. The most common low-value services include preoperative laboratory testing, prostate-specific antigen testing in men older than 70 years, and use of antipsychotic medications in patients with dementia. Forty-one low-value services were measured based on the Milliman MedInsight Health Waste Calculator. In multivariable analysis, the health system characteristics associated with higher use of low-value care were a smaller proportion of primary care physicians for systems with less than the median percentage of primary care physicians vs -0.16 for those with more than the median percentage of primary care physicians; no major teaching hospital without a teaching hospital vs -0.18 with a teaching hospital; larger proportion of non-White patients for systems with >20% of non-White beneficiaries vs -0.06 for systems with ≤20% of non-White beneficiaries; headquartered in the South or West for the South and 0.22 for the West compared with -0.09 for the Northeast and -0.44 for the Midwest;, and serving areas with more health care spending for areas above the median level of spending vs -0.24 for areas below the median level of spending.
AHRQ-funded; HS024075.
Citation: Ganguli I, Morden NE, Yang CW .
Low-value care at the actionable level of individual health systems.
JAMA Intern Med 2021 Nov;181(11):1490-500. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.5531..
Keywords: Health Systems, Primary Care
Atkinson MK, Singer SJ
Managing organizational constraints in innovation teams: a qualitative study across four health systems.
This study examined how interdisciplinary teams are affected by and manage external constraints over the lifecycle of their innovation project. The authors used a multimethod qualitative approach consisting of over 3 years of participant observation data to analyze how four interdisciplinary teams across different health system experienced and managed constraints as they pursued process innovations. Their findings point to several practical implications concerning innovation processes in healthcare: 1) how conditions in the organizational context, or constraints, can impede team progress at different stages of innovation; and 2) the collective efforts, or tactics, teams use to manage or work around those constraints to further progress on their innovations.
AHRQ-funded; HS024453.
Citation: Atkinson MK, Singer SJ .
Managing organizational constraints in innovation teams: a qualitative study across four health systems.
Med Care Res Rev 2021 Oct;78(5):521-36. doi: 10.1177/1077558720925993..
Keywords: Learning Health Systems, Health Systems, Teams
Khodyakov D, Buttorff C, Xenakis L
Alignment between objective and subjective assessments of health system performance: findings from a mixed-methods study.
This study was a survey of health system executives to examine whether their performance assessments match objective performance assessments and qualitatively explore ways to achieve high performance. Interviews were conducted with 138 C-suite executives of 24 health systems in California, Minnesota, Washington, and Wisconsin between 2017 and 2019. The interviews were focused on executives’ perceptions of their own health system’s performance and factors they perceived generally contributed to high performance. The authors grouped health systems based on objective performance levels used in sampling and compared the ratings to executives’ subjective performance assessments. There was poor agreement between objective and subjective performance assessments. Executives whose views were inconsistent with objective assessments did not cite clinical care quality as their basis for their assessment but focused instead on market competition, financial performance, and high customer satisfaction and loyalty. Executives who cited clinical quality metrics had subjective ratings consistent with objective ratings.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Khodyakov D, Buttorff C, Xenakis L .
Alignment between objective and subjective assessments of health system performance: findings from a mixed-methods study.
J Healthc Manag 2021 Sep-Oct;66(5):380-94. doi: 10.1097/jhm-d-20-00249..
Keywords: Health Systems, Quality of Care, Practice Improvement, Provider Performance
Siddique SM, Tipton K, Leas B
Interventions to reduce hospital length of stay in high-risk populations: a systematic review.
Many strategies to reduce hospital length of stay (LOS) have been implemented, but few studies have evaluated hospital-led interventions focused on high-risk populations. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Learning Health System panel commissioned this study to further evaluate system-level interventions for LOS reduction. The objective of this study was to identify and synthesize evidence regarding potential systems-level strategies to reduce LOS for patients at high risk for prolonged LOS.
AHRQ-funded; 75Q80120D00002.
Citation: Siddique SM, Tipton K, Leas B .
Interventions to reduce hospital length of stay in high-risk populations: a systematic review.
JAMA Netw Open 2021 Sep;4(9):e2125846. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.25846..
Keywords: Learning Health Systems, Health Systems, Evidence-Based Practice, Hospital Discharge, Risk, Inpatient Care, Care Management
Kandel ZK, Rittenhouse DR, Bibi S
The CMS State Innovation Models Initiative and improved health information technology and care management capabilities of physician practices.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) State Innovation Models (SIMs) initiative funded 17 states to implement health care payment and delivery system reforms to improve health system performance. The authors investigated whether SIM improved health information technology (HIT) and care management capabilities of physician practices. They found that the CMS SIM Initiative did not accelerate the adoption of ten foundational physician practice capabilities beyond national trends.
AHRQ-funded; HS024075.
Citation: Kandel ZK, Rittenhouse DR, Bibi S .
The CMS State Innovation Models Initiative and improved health information technology and care management capabilities of physician practices.
Med Care Res Rev 2021 Aug;78(4):350-60. doi: 10.1177/1077558719901217..
Keywords: Health Information Technology (HIT), Healthcare Delivery, Payment, Health Systems
Shi Y, Amill-Rosario A, Rudin RS
Barriers to using clinical decision support in ambulatory care: do clinics in health systems fare better?
In this study, the investigators quantified the use of clinical decision support (CDS) and the specific barriers reported by ambulatory clinics and examined whether CDS utilization and barriers differed based on clinics' affiliation with health systems, providing a benchmark for future empirical research and policies related to this topic.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Shi Y, Amill-Rosario A, Rudin RS .
Barriers to using clinical decision support in ambulatory care: do clinics in health systems fare better?
J Am Med Inform Assoc 2021 Jul 30;28(8):1667-75. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocab064..
Keywords: Clinical Decision Support (CDS), Shared Decision Making, Ambulatory Care and Surgery, Health Information Technology (HIT), Health Systems
Yano EM, Resnick A, Gluck M
AHRQ Author: Kwon H, Mistry KB
Accelerating learning healthcare system development through embedded research: career trajectories, training needs, and strategies for managing and supporting embedded researchers.
Health systems and organizations seeking to achieve learning healthcare system principles are increasingly relying on embedded research teams to optimize delivery of evidence-based, high-quality care that improves patient and staff experience alike. In February 2018, 115 attendees from multiple agencies, institutions and professional societies participated in a conference to accelerate development of learning healthcare systems through embedded research. This paper describes the process.
AHRQ-authored.
Citation: Yano EM, Resnick A, Gluck M .
Accelerating learning healthcare system development through embedded research: career trajectories, training needs, and strategies for managing and supporting embedded researchers.
Healthc 2021 Jun;8(Suppl 1):100479. doi: 10.1016/j.hjdsi.2020.100479..
Keywords: Learning Health Systems, Health Systems, Health Services Research (HSR)
Shortell SM, Gottlieb DJ, Martinez Camblor P
Hospital-based health systems 20 years later: a taxonomy for policy research and analysis.
Building on the original taxonomy of hospital-based health systems from 20 years ago, the investigators developed a new taxonomy to inform emerging public policy and practice developments. The study design included a cluster analysis of the 2016 AHA Annual Survey data to derive measures of differentiation, centralization, and integration to create categories or types of hospital-based health systems.
AHRQ-funded; HS024075.
Citation: Shortell SM, Gottlieb DJ, Martinez Camblor P .
Hospital-based health systems 20 years later: a taxonomy for policy research and analysis.
Health Serv Res 2021 Jun;56(3):453-63. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13621..
Keywords: Hospitals, Health Systems, Health Services Research (HSR), Policy
Harrison MI, Shortell SM
AHRQ Author: Harrison MI
Multi-level analysis of the learning health system: Integrating contributions from research on organizations and implementation.
The authors have developed a comprehensive, multilevel framework to inform learning health systems (LHSs) research and practice in order to enhance both research on LHSs and practical steps toward their development. Drawing on the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, the social-ecological framework, and the organizational change framework, their new framework can help investigators and practitioners broadly scan and then investigate forces influencing improvement and learning and may point to otherwise unnoticed interactions among influential factors.
AHRQ-authored.
Citation: Harrison MI, Shortell SM .
Multi-level analysis of the learning health system: Integrating contributions from research on organizations and implementation.
Learn Health Syst 2021 Apr;5(2):e10226. doi: 10.1002/lrh2.10226..
Keywords: Learning Health Systems, Health Systems, Implementation, Organizational Change
Diaz A, Chhabra KR, Dimick JB
Variations in surgical spending within hospital systems for complex cancer surgery.
Researchers sought to measure variations in episode spending within and across hospital systems among Medicare beneficiaries undergoing complex cancer surgery. They found wide variations in surgical episode spending both within and across hospital systems. They recommended that system leaders seek better understanding of variations in practices among their hospitals to standardize care and reduce variations in outcomes, use, and costs.
AHRQ-funded; HS024763.
Citation: Diaz A, Chhabra KR, Dimick JB .
Variations in surgical spending within hospital systems for complex cancer surgery.
Cancer 2021 Feb 15;127(4):586-97. doi: 10.1002/cncr.33299..
Keywords: Surgery, Cancer, Healthcare Costs, Health Systems, Hospitals
Lewis JA, Senft N, Chen H
Evidence-based smoking cessation treatment: a comparison by healthcare system.
The authors surveyed general medicine providers and specialists in a large academic health center (AHC) and its affiliated Veterans Health Administration (VHA) in the Mid-South in 2017 to determine the cross-sectional association of healthcare system in which the provider practiced (AHC versus VHA) with self-reported provision of evidence-based smoking cessation treatment at least once in the past 12 months. They found that VHA healthcare providers were significantly more likely to provide evidence-based smoking cessation treatment compared to AHC healthcare providers.
AHRQ-funded; HS026122.
Citation: Lewis JA, Senft N, Chen H .
Evidence-based smoking cessation treatment: a comparison by healthcare system.
BMC Health Serv Res 2021 Jan 7;21(1):33. doi: 10.1186/s12913-020-06016-5..
Keywords: Health Systems, Tobacco Use: Smoking Cessation, Tobacco Use, Evidence-Based Practice, Substance Abuse
Kimmey L, Furukawa MF, Jones DJ
AHRQ Author: Furukawa MF
Geographic variation in the consolidation of physicians into health systems, 2016-18.
The authors asked the following questions: To what extent does consolidation of physicians into vertically integrated health systems vary across markets, and how did that change from 2016 to 2018? In this article, they used AHRQ data on health systems and commercial data on physician-system affiliation to describe metropolitan statistical area-level physician consolidation and to identify differences by region and metropolitan statistical area size.
AHRQ-authored; AHRQ-funded; 290201600001C.
Citation: Kimmey L, Furukawa MF, Jones DJ .
Geographic variation in the consolidation of physicians into health systems, 2016-18.
Health Aff 2021 Jan;40(1):165-69. doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00812..
Keywords: Health Systems, Provider: Physician, Provider, Healthcare Delivery
Scanlon DP, Harvey JB, Wolf LJ
Are health systems redesigning how health care is delivered?
The purpose of this study was to explore why and how health systems are engaging in care delivery redesign (CDR)-defined as the variety of tools and organizational change processes health systems use to pursue the Triple Aim. The investigators concluded that the ability to validly and reliably measure CDR activities-particularly across varying organizational contexts and markets-was currently limited but is key to better understanding CDR's impact on intended outcomes, which is important for guiding both health system decision making and policy making.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Scanlon DP, Harvey JB, Wolf LJ .
Are health systems redesigning how health care is delivered?
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1129-43. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13585..
Keywords: Health Systems, Healthcare Delivery
Graves JA, Nshuti L, Everson J
Breadth and exclusivity of hospital and physician networks in US insurance markets.
The goal of this study was to quantify network breadth and overlap among primary care physician (PCP), cardiology, and general acute care hospital networks for employer-based (large group and small group), individually purchased (marketplace), Medicare Advantage (MA), and Medicaid managed care (MMC) plans. The main outcomes measured were percentage of in-network physicians and/or hospitals within a 60-minute drive from a hypothetical patient in a given zip code (breadth), and the number of physicians and/or hospitals within each network that overlapped with other insurers' networks, expressed as a percentage of the total possible number of shared connections (exclusivity). Networks were categorized by network breadth size and analyzed by insurance type, state, and insurance, physician, and/or hospital market concentration level, as measured by the Hirschman-Herfindahl index. Markets with concentrated primary care and insurance markets had the broadest and least exclusive primary care networks among large-group commercial plans. Markets with the least concentration had the narrowest and most exclusive networks. Rising levels of insurer and market concentration were associated with broader and less exclusive healthcare networks. The authors suggest that this means that patients could switch to a lower-cost, narrow network plan without losing-in-network coverage to their PCP.
AHRQ-funded; HS025976; HS026395.
Citation: Graves JA, Nshuti L, Everson J .
Breadth and exclusivity of hospital and physician networks in US insurance markets.
JAMA Netw Open 2020 Dec;3(12):e2029419. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.29419..
Keywords: Health Insurance, Learning Health Systems, Health Systems, Primary Care, Hospitals, Healthcare Delivery
Singer SJ, Sinaiko AD, Tietschert MV
Care integration within and outside health system boundaries.
The purpose of this study was to examine care integration-efforts to unify disparate parts of health care organizations to generate synergy across activities occurring within and between them-to understand whether and at which organizational level health systems impact care quality and staff experience. The investigators concluded that measures of clinical process integration related to higher staff ratings of quality and experience.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Singer SJ, Sinaiko AD, Tietschert MV .
Care integration within and outside health system boundaries.
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1033-48. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13578..
Keywords: Health Systems, Healthcare Delivery, Health Services Research (HSR), Research Methodologies
Kranz AM, DeYoreo M, shete-Roesler B
Health system affiliation of physician organizations and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries who have high needs.
The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that health systems provide better care to patients with high needs compared to nonaffiliated physician organizations (POs). The 2015 Medicare Data on Provider Practice and Specialty linked physicians’ database was linked to POs Medicare Provider Enrollment, Chain, and Ownership System (PECOS) and IRS Form 990 data to identify health system affiliations. Among 2,323,301 beneficiaries with high needs, 52.3% received care from system-affiliated practices. The emergency department (ED) visit rate was statistically significantly different in system-affiliated POs and nonaffiliated POs. There were small differences for the remaining five of six quality measures examined: continuity of care, follow-up visits, all-cause readmissions, and ambulatory care-sensitive hospitalizations. Within systems there was substantial variation for rates of continuity of care and follow-up after ED visits.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Kranz AM, DeYoreo M, shete-Roesler B .
Health system affiliation of physician organizations and quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries who have high needs.
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1118-28. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13570..
Keywords: Health Systems, Medicare, Quality of Care, Healthcare Delivery
Machta RM, Reschovsky JD, Jones DJ
AHRQ Author: Furukawa MF
Health system integration with physician specialties varies across markets and system types.
Data from the AHRQ Compendium of US Health Systems and the IQVIA OneKey database was used to examine the change from 2016 to 2018 in the percentage of physicians in systems, focusing on primary care and the 10 most numerous non-hospital based specialties across 382 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. The authors also categorized systems by ownership, mission, and payment program participation and examined how these characteristics were related to their patterns of physician integration in 2018. Findings were that specialists with lucrative hospital services were the most commonly integrated with systems, including hematology-oncology, cardiology, and general surgery. High market concentration by insurers and hospital-systems was associated with lower rates of physician integration. In addition, systems with academic medical centers (AMCs) and publicly owned systems unrelated to the physicians’ potential contribution to hospital revenue, and investor-owned systems demonstrated more limited physician integration.
AHRQ-authored; AHRQ-funded; 290201600001C.
Citation: Machta RM, Reschovsky JD, Jones DJ .
Health system integration with physician specialties varies across markets and system types.
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1062-72. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13584..
Keywords: Health Systems, Healthcare Delivery, Primary Care
Colla C, Yang W, Mainor AJ
Organizational integration, practice capabilities, and outcomes in clinically complex Medicare beneficiaries.
This study examines the association between clinical integration and financial integration, quality-focused care delivery processes, and beneficiary utilization and outcomes. Data was used from multiphysician practices in the 2017-2018 National Survey of Healthcare Organizations and Systems and 2017 Medicare claims data. Out of 1.6M fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries aged 66 or older attributed to 2113 practices, 414,209 were considered clinically complex (frailty or 2 or more chronic conditions). Financial and clinical integration were weakly correlated. Clinical integration was significantly associated with greater adoption of quality-focused care delivery processes, while financial integration was associated with the opposite. Integration was not associated with reduced utilization or better beneficiary-level health-related outcomes, but both integration types were associated with lower spending.
AHRQ-funded; HS024075.
Citation: Colla C, Yang W, Mainor AJ .
Organizational integration, practice capabilities, and outcomes in clinically complex Medicare beneficiaries.
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1085-97. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13580..
Keywords: Medicare, Health Systems, Healthcare Delivery
Timbie JW, Kranz AM, DeYoreo M
Racial and ethnic disparities in care for health system-affiliated physician organizations and non-affiliated physician organizations.
The purpose of this study was to assess racial and ethnic disparities in care for Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries and whether disparities differ between health system-affiliated physician organizations (POs) and nonaffiliated POs. The investigators found no evidence that system-affiliated POs had smaller racial and ethnic disparities than nonaffiliated POs. Where differences existed, disparities were slightly larger in affiliated POs.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Timbie JW, Kranz AM, DeYoreo M .
Racial and ethnic disparities in care for health system-affiliated physician organizations and non-affiliated physician organizations.
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1107-17. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13581..
Keywords: Racial and Ethnic Minorities, Disparities, Medicare, Health Systems
Ridgely MS, Buttorff C, Wolf L
The importance of understanding and measuring health system structural, functional, and clinical integration.
In this study, the authors explored if there were ways to characterize health systems-not already revealed by secondary data-that could provide new insights into differences in health system performance. The investigators sought to collect rich qualitative data to reveal whether and to what extent health systems varied in important ways across dimensions of structural, functional, and clinical integration.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Ridgely MS, Buttorff C, Wolf L .
The importance of understanding and measuring health system structural, functional, and clinical integration.
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1049-61. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13582..
Keywords: Health Systems, Healthcare Delivery
Harvey JB, Vanderbrink J, Mahmud Y
Understanding how health systems facilitate primary care redesign.
The objectives of this study were to understand how health systems are facilitating primary care redesign (PCR), examine the PCR initiatives taking place within systems, and identify barriers to this work. A sample of 24 health systems in 4 states was used to identify how system leaders define and implement initiatives to redesign primary care delivery and identify challenges. Codes based on the theoretical PCR literature was used and researchers also created new codes. Semi-structured telephone interviews with 162 system executives and physician organization leaders from 24 systems were conducted. Initiatives to redesign the delivery of primary care were described by leaders, but many were still in the early stages. Motivating factors for team-based care included improvement efficiency and enhancing clinician job satisfaction. Changes in payment and risk assumption as well as community needs were commonly cited as motivators for population health management and care coordination. Challenges health systems face in redesigning primary included return on investment and slower than anticipated rate in moving from fee-for-service to value-based payment.
AHRQ-funded; HS024067.
Citation: Harvey JB, Vanderbrink J, Mahmud Y .
Understanding how health systems facilitate primary care redesign.
Health Serv Res 2020 Dec;55(Suppl 3):1144-54. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.13576..
Keywords: Health Systems, Primary Care: Models of Care, Primary Care, Healthcare Delivery
Short MN, Ho V
Weighing the effects of vertical integration versus market concentration on hospital quality.
Provider organizations are increasing in complexity, as hospitals acquire physician practices and physician organizations grow in size. At the same time, hospitals are merging with each other to improve bargaining power with insurers. In this study, the investigators analyzed 29 quality measures reported to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' Hospital Compare database for 2008 to 2015 to test whether vertical integration between hospitals and physicians or increases in hospital market concentration influenced patient outcomes.
AHRQ-funded; HS024727.
Citation: Short MN, Ho V .
Weighing the effects of vertical integration versus market concentration on hospital quality.
Med Care Res Rev 2020 Dec;77(6):538-48. doi: 10.1177/1077558719828938.
.
.
Keywords: Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS), Quality of Care, Patient Experience, Hospitals, Medicare, Provider Performance, Health Systems