National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report
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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
51 to 66 of 66 Research Studies DisplayedDesai AD, Popalisky J, Simon TD
The effectiveness of family-centered transition processes from hospital settings to home: a review of the literature.
The objective of this study was to conduct a targeted literature review of studies examining the effectiveness of family-centered transition processes from hospital-and emergency department (ED)-to-home for improving patient health outcomes and health care utilization. It determined that patient-tailored discharge education is associated with improved patient health outcomes in pediatric ED patients.
AHRQ-funded; HS020506.
Citation: Desai AD, Popalisky J, Simon TD .
The effectiveness of family-centered transition processes from hospital settings to home: a review of the literature.
Hosp Pediatr 2015 Apr;5(4):219-31. doi: 10.1542/hpeds.2014-0097..
Keywords: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, Hospital Discharge, Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Transitions of Care
Hilligoss B, Mansfield JA, Patterson ES
Collaborating-or "selling" patients? A conceptual framework for emergency department-to-inpatient handoff negotiations.
The authors propose an empirically grounded conceptual framework of emergency department admission handoff negotiations that represents handoffs as situated within ongoing flows of action, variable negotiation contexts, stable organizational structures, and macro environments. The purpose of this framework is to raise awareness of potential opportunities to intervene and improve the contexts in which handoffs occur in order to foster greater collaboration and improve resilience.
AHRQ-funded; HS018758
Citation: Hilligoss B, Mansfield JA, Patterson ES .
Collaborating-or "selling" patients? A conceptual framework for emergency department-to-inpatient handoff negotiations.
Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2015 Mar;41(3):134-43..
Keywords: Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Quality of Care, Patient Safety
Fertel BS, Hart KW, Lindsell CJ
Patients who use multiple EDs: quantifying the degree of overlap between ED populations.
The researchers estimated the proportion of emergency department (ED) patients who seek care from more than one ED by using a sample of three EDs in a region with a total of 18 EDs and one dedicated pediatric ED. They found that most repeat encounters occur within a single ED rather than among multiple EDs. Nonetheless, nearly one of every four ED encounters were by patients who also visited another ED during the study period.
AHRQ-funded; HS021749.
Citation: Fertel BS, Hart KW, Lindsell CJ .
Patients who use multiple EDs: quantifying the degree of overlap between ED populations.
West J Emerg Med 2015 Mar;16(2):229-33. doi: 10.5811/westjem.2015.1.22838..
Keywords: Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Healthcare Utilization
Galbraith JW, Franco RA, Donnelly JP
Unrecognized chronic hepatitis C virus infection among baby boomers in the emergency department.
The researchers described early experience with integrated opt-out HCV antibody (Ab) screening of medically stable baby boomers presenting to an urban academic ED. They observed high prevalence of unrecognized chronic HCV infection in this series of baby boomers presenting to the ED, highlighting the ED as an important venue for high-impact HCV screening and linkage to care.
AHRQ-funded; HS013852.
Citation: Galbraith JW, Franco RA, Donnelly JP .
Unrecognized chronic hepatitis C virus infection among baby boomers in the emergency department.
Hepatology 2015 Mar;61(3):776-82. doi: 10.1002/hep.27410.
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Keywords: U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), Hepatitis, Screening, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Emergency Department
Moore CL, Daniels B, Ghita M
Accuracy of reduced-dose computed tomography for ureteral stones in emergency department patients.
The researchers compared the sensitivity and specificity of reduced-dose computed tomography (CT) for diagnosis of clinically important urologic causes of kidney stones likely to require intervention within a 90-day follow-up period. In 201 patients with a range of body mass indexes who received both regular and reduced dose scans contemporaneously, reduced-dose CT were 96% sensitive for stones requiring intervention.
AHRQ-funded; HS018322.
Citation: Moore CL, Daniels B, Ghita M .
Accuracy of reduced-dose computed tomography for ureteral stones in emergency department patients.
Ann Emerg Med 2015 Feb;65(2):189-98.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2014.09.008..
Keywords: Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Emergency Department, Kidney Disease and Health, Imaging
Moy E, Barrett M, Coffey R
AHRQ Author: Moy E
Missed diagnoses of acute myocardial infarction in the emergency department: variation by patient and facility characteristics.
The purpose of this study is to estimate the frequency of missed heart attacks or their precursors (e.g., unstable angina) in the emergency department (ED) by examining use of EDs in the week prior to hospitalization for heart attack. This study of 111,973 patients found an overall rate of 0.9 percent for missed diagnoses of heart attacks.
AHRQ-authored; AHRQ-funded; 290201300002C
Citation: Moy E, Barrett M, Coffey R .
Missed diagnoses of acute myocardial infarction in the emergency department: variation by patient and facility characteristics.
Diagn. 2015 Feb;2(1):29-40..
Keywords: Diagnostic Safety and Quality, Heart Disease and Health, Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP)
Kindermann DR, Mutter RL, Houchens RL
AHRQ Author: Mutter RL
The transfer instability index: a novel metric of emergency department transfer relationships.
The researchers developed the “transfer instability index” to describe sending hospitals’ relationships with receiving hospitals. They found that emergency departments with a greater share of publicly insured patients had a greater transfer instability index, which may indicate less stable, protocolized, and regionalized transfer relationships.
AHRQ-funded; 290201300002C.
Citation: Kindermann DR, Mutter RL, Houchens RL .
The transfer instability index: a novel metric of emergency department transfer relationships.
Acad Emerg Med 2015 Feb;22(2):166-71. doi: 10.1111/acem.12589..
Keywords: Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Emergency Department, Transitions of Care, Medicaid, Medicare
Samim M, Goss S, Luty S
Incidental findings on CT for suspected renal colic in emergency department patients: prevalence and types in 5,383 consecutive examinations.
This study aimed to determine the prevalence, importance, and types of incidental findings (IF) in non-enhanced CT scans performed for suspected renal colic, based on ACR white papers and other accepted radiographic recommendations. It found that important IF occurred in 12.7% of non-enhanced CT scans performed for suspected renal colic in the emergency department and are more common in older individuals.
AHRQ-funded; HS018322.
Citation: Samim M, Goss S, Luty S .
Incidental findings on CT for suspected renal colic in emergency department patients: prevalence and types in 5,383 consecutive examinations.
J Am Coll Radiol 2015 Jan;12(1):63-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jacr.2014.07.026..
Keywords: Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Imaging, Elderly
Goss FR, Plasek JM, Lau JJ
An evaluation of a natural language processing tool for identifying and encoding allergy information in emergency department clinical notes.
This paper presents early experience and preliminary findings in developing an allergy module for a general natural language processing (NLP) system, named Medical Text Extraction, Reasoning, and Mapping System (MTERMS), to extract and encode allergy information from clinical text. The preliminary results demonstrate the feasibility using NLP to extract and encode allergy information from clinical notes.
AHRQ-funded; HS022728.
Citation: Goss FR, Plasek JM, Lau JJ .
An evaluation of a natural language processing tool for identifying and encoding allergy information in emergency department clinical notes.
AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2014 Nov 14;2014:580-8..
Keywords: Health Information Technology (HIT), Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Emergency Department
Cummins MR, Crouch BI, Del Fiol G
Information requirements for health information exchange supported communication between emergency departments and poison control centers.
The researchers analyzed audio recordings of current telephone-based communications between emergency departments (EDs) and poison control centers (PCCs) in order to describe the information requirements for health information exchange between PCCs and EDs. Their goal was to identify a focused subset of available health information, most relevant to emergency treatment of poison exposure, in order to support generalizable process re-design.
AHRQ-funded; HS018773.
Citation: Cummins MR, Crouch BI, Del Fiol G .
Information requirements for health information exchange supported communication between emergency departments and poison control centers.
AMIA Annu Symp Proc 2014 Nov 14;2014:449-56..
Keywords: Communication, Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Health Information Exchange (HIE), Health Information Technology (HIT)
Malhotra K, Baltrus P P, Zhang S
Geographic and racial variation in asthma prevalence and emergency department use among Medicaid-enrolled children in 14 southern states.
Using 2007 Medicaid claims data from 556 counties in 14 southern states, the researchers described the local area variation in 1-year asthma prevalence rates, emergency department visit rates, and racial disparity rate ratios. They found much local area variation in asthma prevalence and asthma ED visit rates among Medicaid-enrolled children. Between black and white children, more counties had higher prevalence of asthma and higher ED visit rates among blacks.
AHRQ-funded; HS022444; HS019470
Citation: Malhotra K, Baltrus P P, Zhang S .
Geographic and racial variation in asthma prevalence and emergency department use among Medicaid-enrolled children in 14 southern states.
J Asthma. 2014 Nov;51(9):913-21. doi: 10.3109/02770903.2014.930479..
Keywords: Asthma, Medicaid, Social Determinants of Health, Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Peterson SM, Gurses AP, Regan L
Resident to resident handoffs in the emergency department: an observational study.
This study aimed to identify hazards to patient safety and barriers to efficiency related to resident handoffs in the ED. It found that residents were interrupted, on average, every 8.5 min. The most common deficit in relaying the plan of care strategy was failing to relay medications administered (32 percent). In addition, there were ambiguities related to medication administration.
AHRQ-funded; HS018762.
Citation: Peterson SM, Gurses AP, Regan L .
Resident to resident handoffs in the emergency department: an observational study.
J Emerg Med 2014 Nov;47(5):573-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2014.06.027..
Keywords: Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Patient Safety, Electronic Health Records (EHRs), Medication
Griffey RT, Kennedy SK, D'Agostino McGowan L, Good RT, Kennedy SK, D'Agostino McGowan L
Is low health literacy associated with increased emergency department utilization and recidivism?
The study objective was to determine whether patients with low health literacy have higher emergency department (ED) use and higher ED recidivism than patients with adequate health literacy. It found that patients with inadequate health literacy had higher ED use compared to those with adequate health literacy.
AHRQ-funded; HS020309
Citation: Griffey RT, Kennedy SK, D'Agostino McGowan L, Good RT, Kennedy SK, D'Agostino McGowan L .
Is low health literacy associated with increased emergency department utilization and recidivism?
Acad Emerg Med. 2014 Oct;21(10):1109-15. doi: 10.1111/acem..
Keywords: Health Literacy, Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Healthcare Utilization
Friermuth CE, Haywood C, Jr., Silva S
Attitudes toward patients with sickle cell disease in a multicenter sample of emergency department providers.
The authors aimed to validate a survey that measures attitudes toward sickle cell disease (SCD) patients among emergency department (ED) providers and to compare differences in attitude scores between provider types. They found that, among ED providers, this scale identified a dimension not observed in research with the original instrument among internal medicine providers. They concluded that provider attitudes influence patient-provider interactions and quality of care.
AHRQ-funded; HS019646.
Citation: Friermuth CE, Haywood C, Jr., Silva S .
Attitudes toward patients with sickle cell disease in a multicenter sample of emergency department providers.
Adv Emerg Nurs J 2014 Oct-Dec;36(4):335-47. doi: 10.1097/tme.0000000000000036.
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Keywords: Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Provider: Health Personnel, Sickle Cell Disease
Hwang SW, Chambers C, Chiu S
A comprehensive assessment of health care utilization among homeless adults under a system of universal health insurance.
The researchers comprehensively assessed health care utilization in a population-based sample of homeless adults and matched controls under a universal health insurance system. They found that homeless people had substantially higher rates of ED and hospital use than general population controls; these rates were largely driven by a subset of homeless persons with extremely high-intensity usage of health services.
AHRQ-funded; HS014129.
Citation: Hwang SW, Chambers C, Chiu S .
A comprehensive assessment of health care utilization among homeless adults under a system of universal health insurance.
Am J Public Health 2013 Dec;103 Suppl 2:S294-301. doi: 10.2105/ajph.2013.301369..
Keywords: Healthcare Utilization, Social Determinants of Health, Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS)
Pines JM, Mutter RL, Zocchi MS
AHRQ Author: Mutter RL
Variation in emergency department admission rates across the United States.
The authors investigated factors related to variation in hospital-level emergency department (ED) admission rates. Using HCUP data, they found that higher proportions of Medicare and uninsured patients, more inpatient beds, lower ED volumes, for-profit ownership, trauma center status, and higher hospital occupancy rates were associated with higher ED admission rates.
AHRQ-authored.
Citation: Pines JM, Mutter RL, Zocchi MS .
Variation in emergency department admission rates across the United States.
Med Care Res Rev 2013 Apr;70(2):218-31. doi: 10.1177/1077558712470565.
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Keywords: Emergency Department, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Health Insurance, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), Hospitalization