First-of-Its-Kind Study Examines Disparities in Healthcare Costs and Outcomes of Cigarette Smoking in the United States

AHRQ Stats: Changes in Employee Insurance Contributions, 2021-2022

While employee contributions for those with single and employee-plus-one coverage did not change significantly between 2021 and 2022, contributions for family coverage increased by 5.2 percent from $6,174 annually to $6,492. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #553, Trends in Health Insurance at Private Employers, 2008-2022.) 

Today's Headlines:

• First-of-Its-Kind Study Examines Disparities in Healthcare Costs and Outcomes of Cigarette Smoking in the United States.
• Grantee Profile Highlights Work of Amy Vogelsmeier To Improve Guidelines for Nursing Home-Associated Viral Respiratory Infections.
• Winners Announced in Challenge Competition on Use of AHRQ Patient Safety Tools.
• Funding Available for Projects To Improve Healthcare Worker Safety.
• Now Available: 2022 Data on Changes in U.S. Health Systems.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Register for Jan. 11 Webinar on Improving Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey Response Rates and Representativeness.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

First-of-Its-Kind Study Examines Disparities in Healthcare Costs and Outcomes of Cigarette Smoking in the United States

Adults from some racial and ethnic populations benefit substantially more than others from tobacco control policies, according to an AHRQ-funded, first-of-its-kind analysis of racial and ethnic disparities in the medical costs of smoking in the United States. The research published in the journal Tobacco Control showed that while adults in specific racial and ethnic populations have a lower ever-smoked rate than White adults and make more attempts to quit, their medical spending associated with smoking was twice as high, with a 41 percent higher rate of having multiple chronic conditions associated with smoking. The research supports President Biden’s April 2023 Executive Order calling for policymakers to examine distributional effects in cost-benefit analyses required in the rulemaking process. Access the study abstract.

Grantee Profile Highlights Work of Amy Vogelsmeier To Improve Guidelines for Nursing Home-Associated Viral Respiratory Infections

Amy Vogelsmeier, Ph.D., R.N., an associate professor at Sinclair School of Nursing, University of Missouri–Columbia, is working to develop knowledge and recommendations to improve U.S. nursing homes’ ability to respond to high-risk respiratory and healthcare-associated infection outbreaks. "An opportunity to minimize respiratory infections and the negative outcomes, not just from the illness itself but all of the constraints put on nursing homes specific to COVID, is what drove this study,” she noted. A new AHRQ grantee profile highlights Dr. Vogelsmeier’s research to improve healthcare processes and, as a result, improve patient outcomes. Access Dr. Vogelsmeier’s profile and profiles of other AHRQ grantees.

Winners Announced in Challenge Competition on Use of AHRQ Patient Safety Tools

Three healthcare organizations have been awarded $25,000 each in an AHRQ challenge competition designed to demonstrate how the agency’s patient safety tools can result in safer care. AHRQ has developed numerous resources to help staff in hospitals, emergency departments, long-term care facilities and ambulatory settings prevent avoidable complications of care. The winners of the competition are:

• University of Missouri Health Care utilized AHRQ’s Preventing Pressure Ulcers in Hospitals: A Toolkit for Improving Quality of Care to decrease reportable pressure injuries by 92 percent and save an estimated $350,000 in avoidable costs.
• University of Chicago Medicine reduced venous thromboembolism incidence by 30 percent in the perioperative patient population across the institution over a 12-month period with the use of AHRQ’s Preventing Hospital-Associated Venous Thromboembolism: A Guide for Effective Quality Improvement.
• Chesapeake Regional Healthcare used AHRQ’s Preventing Falls in Hospitals: A Toolkit for Improving Quality of Care to help guide the creation of the “Fall-Free Friday” initiative, which resulted in a 31 percent decrease in acute care falls from the fourth quarter of 2022 to the first quarter of 2023, with sustained success over the next seven months.

Funding Available for Projects To Improve Healthcare Worker Safety

A new Notice of Funding Opportunity from AHRQ seeks applications for research projects that address ways to improve healthcare worker safety and well-being. Patient safety cannot be fully achieved without ensuring healthcare worker safety and well-being, and this initiative is designed to support AHRQ’s goal of reinvigorating the patient safety movement by adding fresh perspectives and insights of healthcare professionals. The agency seeks grant applications (R01) aimed at improving the interrelated systems and processes embedded in healthcare delivery in various healthcare settings. Access the Notice of Funding Opportunity and information about additional AHRQ funding opportunities.

Now Available: 2022 Data on Changes in U.S. Health Systems

AHRQ’s Compendium of U.S. Health Systems has been updated to include 2022 data. The Compendium provides data on the characteristics and organization of 640 health systems in the United States, and the updated data will allow researchers, policymakers and healthcare administrators to continue to assess patterns in health system consolidation and changes in the landscape of health systems over time. The new Compendium data includes a system-level file as well as a hospital file that provides information on system ownership of hospitals. AHRQ also recently released 2020 and 2021 versions of the Compendium. Access the new 2022 Compendium data and Compendium data from previous years.

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:

• The relationship between nursing home staffing and resident safety outcomes: a systematic review of reviews.
• The racial disparities in maternal mortality and impact of structural racism and implicit racial bias on pregnant black women: a review of the literature.
• Community Health Systems’ ongoing journey to zero preventable harm.
• Completion of recommended tests and referrals in telehealth vs in-person visits.

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).

Register for Jan. 11 Webinar on Improving Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey Response Rates and Representativeness

Registration is open for a webinar on Jan. 11 from 1 to 2 p.m. ET about strategies to improve response rates and representativeness for AHRQ’s Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) surveys. Speakers will discuss ways to increase participation in CAHPS surveys, as well as current experiments to test web-based administration modes.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Systematic Review: Impact of Healthcare Algorithms on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Healthcare.
• Systematic Review (draft open for comment): Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Pharmacist-led, checklist intervention did not improve adherence in ambulatory patients starting/resuming DOACs. Wilson AS, Pham T, Mbusa D, et al. J Am Pharm Assoc 2023 May-Jun;63(3):878-84.e3. Epub 2023 Mar 26. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Multicomponent pharmacist intervention did not reduce clinically important medication errors for ambulatory patients initiating direct oral anticoagulants. Kapoor A, Patel P, Mbusa D, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2023 Dec;38(16):3526-34. Epub 2023 Sep 27. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Impact of a pharmacist intervention on DOAC knowledge and satisfaction in ambulatory patients. Pham T, Patel P, Mbusa D, et al. J Thromb Thrombolysis 2023 Feb;55(2):346-54. Epub 2022 Dec 12. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Validation of a process for shared decision-making in pediatrics. Opel DJ, Vo HH, Dundas N, et al. Acad Pediatr 2023 Nov-Dec;23(8):1588-97. Epub 2023 Jan 20. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A mortality surveillance collaboration between a health system and public health department. Simpson SA, Loh R, Elliott L, et al. Am J Public Health 2023 Sep;113(9):943-6. Epub 2023 Jul 6. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Consistency and adequacy of public and commercial health insurance for US children, 2016 to 2021. Daw JR, Yekta S, Jacobson-Davies FE, et al. JAMA Health Forum 2023 Nov;4(11):e234179. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Deceased donor kidney transplantation for older transplant candidates: a new microsimulation model for determining risks and benefits. Kaufmann MB, Tan JC, Chertow GM, et al. Med Decis Making 2023 Jul;43(5):576-86. Epub 2023 May 12. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

The impact of frailty on ventral hernia repair outcomes in a statewide database. Solano QP, Howard R, Mullens CL, et al. Surg Endosc 2023 Jul;37(7):5603-11. Epub 2022 Nov 7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.