Problems With Electronic Health Records Linked to Nurse Dissatisfaction, Poor Patient Care

AHRQ Stats: Hospital Stays Related to Opioids and Stimulants

More hospital stays from 2012 to 2018 were related to opioids only instead of stimulants only, though from 2016 to 2018, the population rate of stimulant-only related stays increased 22 percent while opioid-only related stays remained relatively stable with an 8 percent decrease. (Source: AHRQ, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #271: Opioid-Related and Stimulant-Related Adult Inpatient Stays, 2012-2018.)

Today's Headlines

• Problems With Electronic Health Records Linked to Nurse Dissatisfaction, Poor Patient Care.
• AHRQ Resource Supports Increasing COVID-19 Vaccinations Among Certified Nursing Assistants.
• Highlights From AHRQ's Patient Safety Network.
• Recording Available for Webinar on COVID-19's Impact on Digital Healthcare.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature. 

Problems With Electronic Health Records Linked to Nurse Dissatisfaction, Poor Patient Care

Hospitals using inadequate electronic health record (EHR) technology have higher rates of nurse dissatisfaction, burnout and intent to leave, as well as worsened patient outcomes and a higher likelihood of 30-day readmission, according to an AHRQ-funded study in Medical Care. Researchers reviewed data from more than 1.2 million surgical patients and 12,000 nurses at 343 hospitals in four states. They also found previously undocumented associations between EHR usability and an increased surgical patient mortality rate (21 percent) as well as significantly higher odds of 30-day readmission. Study authors suggested that employing EHR systems with suboptimal usability may be partly responsible for the growing prevalence of burnout among nurses. Access the abstract.

AHRQ Resource Supports Increasing COVID-19 Vaccinations Among Certified Nursing Assistants

A new guide released by AHRQ is designed to help nursing home leaders build confidence in COVID-19 vaccinations among certified nursing assistants (CNAs). The guide sheds light on CNAs' reasons for not getting vaccinated and offers practical advice on how to have conversations about the vaccine, what kinds of messages to use and how to support CNAs in making their decisions. Also included are posters, information cards and designs for pins to celebrate vaccination status. Invest in Trust: A Guide for Building COVID-19 Vaccine Trust and Increasing Vaccination Rates Among CNAs was developed by the Center for Public Interest Communications for AHRQ's Nursing Home COVID-19 Action Network.

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:

• Key considerations in ensuring a safe regional telehealth care model: a systematic review.
• Healthcare professionals experience of psychological safety, voice, and silence.
• Maintaining maternal-newborn safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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).

Recording Available for Webinar on COVID-19's Impact on Digital Healthcare

AHRQ hosted a free Web conference on July 1, 2021, to discuss how digital healthcare has been affected by the pandemic. The pressing need to put evidence into practice to optimize outcomes for all patients and improve experience and reduce burnout for all providers has been dramatically intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants described their research and efforts related to the use of digital healthcare strategies and tools to support information flow in caring for patients with COVID and other conditions, and implications of their results for leveraging digital healthcare going forward. The Web conference speakers did not discuss or provide any treatment recommendations for COVID-19.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Defining success in measurement-based care for depression: a comparison of common metrics. Coley RY, Boggs JM, Beck A, et al. Psychiatr Serv 2020 Apr;71(4):312-8. Epub 2019 Dec 18. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Certificate of need laws: a systematic review and cost-effectiveness analysis. Conover CJ, Bailey J. BMC Health Serv Res 2020 Aug 14;20(1):748. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

COVID-19, racism, and racial disparities in kidney disease: galvanizing the kidney community response. Crews DC, Purnell TS. J Am Soc Nephrol 2020 Aug;31(8):1-3. Epub 2020 Jul 13. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Does home remedy use contribute to medication nonadherence among Blacks with hypertension? Cuffee YL, Rosal M, Hargraves JL, et al. Ethn Dis 2020 Summer;30(3):451-8. Epub 2020 Jul 9. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Relationships between predischarge and postdischarge infectious complications, length of stay, and unplanned readmissions in the ACS NSQIP database. Aasen DM, Bronsert MR, Rozeboom PD, et al. Surgery 2021 Feb;169(2):325-32. Epub 2020 Sep 12. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Effect of enhanced primary care for people with serious mental illness on service use and screening. Grove LR, Gertner AK, Swietek KE, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2021 Apr;36(4):970-7. Epub 2021 Jan 27. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Hospital resource use after hip reconstruction surgery in children with neurological complex chronic conditions. Berry JG, Difazio RL, Melvin P, et al. Dev Med Child Neurol 2021 Feb;63(2):204-10. Epub 2020 Nov 9. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.

Designing a patient-specific search of transplant program performance and outcomes: feedback from heart transplant candidates and recipients. McKinney WT, Schaffhausen CR, Schladt D, et al. Clin Transplant 2021 Feb;35(2):e14183. Epub 2020 Feb 19. Access the abstract on PubMed^®.