AHRQ Views Blog—The FY 2022 President’s Budget Request for AHRQ: Building Back Better
Issue Number
767
June 8, 2021
AHRQ Stats
Access more data on this topic in the associated research findings, plus additional AHRQ data infographics.
Today's Headlines
- AHRQ Views Blog—The FY 2022 President’s Budget Request for AHRQ: Building Back Better.
- New Interactive Tool Provides Social Determinants of Health Data on Internet Access.
- Software Technology Significantly Reduced Medication Discrepancies.
- Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
- Featured Impact Case Study: AHRQ Training Curriculum Reduced Communication Breakdowns.
- AHRQ in the Professional Literature.
AHRQ Views Blog—The FY 2022 President’s Budget Request for AHRQ: Building Back Better
The President’s FY 2022 budget request, which would maintain AHRQ as an independent agency and boost its budget by $42 million, is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog by Acting Director David Meyers, M.D. The $380 million budget, along with an estimated $109 million from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, would support AHRQ’s aim of helping healthcare systems and professionals provide higher quality, safer, more equitable, and higher value care. Notable investments would include $23 million in health services research and $7 million to improve the nation’s response to the opioid and polysubstance abuse epidemics. Activities to advance health equity are woven throughout the budget, and for the first time AHRQ would receive dedicated funding for primary care research. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address and select “AHRQ Views Blog.”
New Interactive Tool Provides Social Determinants of Health Data on Internet Access
A new online data visualization tool from AHRQ gives analysts access to social determinants of health (SDOH) data related to people’s access to the internet. Internet access is essential for obtaining home-based telemedicine and is increasingly important for healthcare needs such as making appointments with providers, getting test results and accessing medical records. The new resource, based on data from AHRQ’s SDOH beta database, features a map of the United States showing county-level percentages of households with computers and smartphones and percentages of households with any type of high-speed internet access. The map also shows county-level percentages of individuals in poverty. The SDOH database, funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund and AHRQ, is currently in a test phase. AHRQ has also released an environmental scan (XLSX, 46 KB) to identify SDOH data sources at the ZIP code, county and state levels. AHRQ asks users to send suggestions or comments on SDOH data resources to SDOH@ahrq.hhs.gov.
Software Technology Significantly Reduced Medication Discrepancies
A new health information technology, CancelRx, greatly reduced the rate of medication discrepancies between outpatient clinics and pharmacies, according to an AHRQ-funded study. While medications are routinely discontinued in patients’ clinic electronic health records, standardized transmission of this information to pharmacies has been lacking. Researchers examined the impact of CancelRx after the software was implemented in a health system that included a hospital, outpatient clinics and 15 outpatient pharmacies. They found that CancelRx increased the rate of successful discontinuations from 34 percent to 93 percent. Access the abstract of the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association.
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:
- Effects of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation on nurse staffing and patient mortality, readmissions, and length of stay: a prospective study in a panel of hospitals.
- Can patients contribute to enhancing the safety and effectiveness of test-result follow-up? Qualitative outcomes from a health consumer workshop.
- Quality of life after maternal near miss: a systematic review.
- Safety culture and workforce well-being associations with Positive Leadership WalkRounds.
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).
Featured Impact Case Study: AHRQ Training Curriculum Reduced Communication Breakdowns
AHRQ’s TeamSTEPPS team training curriculum helped boost patient safety at Private Diagnostic Clinic, a multispecialty physician practice affiliated with Duke Health. Practice clinicians, including those shown here, were able to reduce communications breakdowns and improve its handling of disagreements. Access the Impact Case Study.
AHRQ in the Professional Literature
Treatment patterns and clinical outcomes after the introduction of the Medicare Sepsis Performance Measure (SEP-1). Barbash IJ, Davis BS, Yabes JG, et al. Ann Intern Med 2021 Apr 20. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Part I: a quantitative study of social risk screening acceptability in patients and caregivers. De Marchis EH, Hessler D, Fichtenberg C, et al. Am J Prev Med 2019 Dec;57(6 Suppl 1):S25-s37. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Making sense of blood glucose data and self-management in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus: a qualitative study. Despins LA, Wakefield BJ. J Clin Nurs 2020 Jul;29(13-14):2572-88. Epub 2020 Apr 27. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS): the importance of patient-reported outcomes (PRO). Dominici LS, Rosenberg SM. Curr Breast Cancer Rep 2020 Jun;12(2):90-7. Epub 2020 Apr 4. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Patient experiences after implementing lean primary care redesigns. Hung DY, Mujal G, Jin A, et al. Health Serv Res 2021 Jun;56(3):363-70. Epub 2020 Dec 10. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
What contributes to diagnostic error or delay? A qualitative exploration across diverse acute care settings in the United States. Barwise A, Leppin A, Dong Y, et al. J Patient Saf 2021 Jun 1;17(4):239-48. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Socioeconomic and racial and/or ethnic disparities in multisystem inflammatory syndrome. Javalkar K, Robson VK, Gaffney L, et al. Pediatrics 2021 May;147(5). Epub 2021 Feb 18. Access the abstract on PubMed®.
Association of geriatric events with perioperative outcomes after elective inpatient surgery. Dworsky JQ, Shellito AD, Childers CP, et al. J Surg Res 2021 Mar;259:192-9. Epub 2020 Dec 7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.