AHRQ Views: Feeling Energized After Another Successful AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting

AHRQ Stats: Disorders Associated With Public Insurance Readmissions

In 2020, adult hospitalizations for sickle cell and anemia resulted in the highest readmission rates among patients using public insurance, leading to 37.7 30-day readmissions for every 100 hospitalizations among Medicare patients and 41.0 readmissions for every 100 hospitalizations among Medicaid patients. (Source: AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #307: Clinical Conditions With Frequent, Costly Hospital Readmissions by Payer, 2020.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Views: Feeling Energized After Another Successful AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting
• AHRQ Data Show Nearly 10 Percent of Medical Visits in 2021 Conducted Using Telehealth
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• Register Now for AHRQ Webinars.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Views: Feeling Energized After Another Successful AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting

A new blog post by AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., expresses his appreciation for the broad participation and robust presentations at AcademyHealth’s recent Annual Research Meeting (ARM). For the first time, AHRQ’s National Advisory Council held its summer meeting at the ARM, a chance for the organizations to affirm their shared goal of improving the delivery of healthcare by advancing health services research, a theme that was underscored in videotaped welcoming remarks by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra during ARM's opening plenary session. AHRQ staff were instrumental in two special sessions: Innovations and Actions for Addressing Emergency Department Crowding, which addressed the consequences of this global phenomenon, and the Modernization of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), which outlined AHRQ’s efforts to enhance one of the nation’s most valuable healthcare data resources. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

AHRQ Data Show Nearly 10 Percent of Medical Visits in 2021 Conducted Using Telehealth

Nearly 10 percent of all U.S. medical visits in 2021 occurred via telehealth, a new AHRQ data analysis shows. Researchers reviewed data from the AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and found that in 2021, the first full calendar year under the COVID-19 global pandemic, 9.6 percent of all medical visits were via telehealth, with nearly 50 percent for mental healthcare. The analysis, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, showed that the use of telehealth varied widely, being more common among nonphysician clinicians, primary care providers and nonsurgical specialists. The researchers suggest that more research evaluating the costs and benefits of telehealth may help contribute to maximizing its potential to improve access for underserved populations. Access the article.

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:

• Identifying and measuring administrative harms experienced by hospitalists and administrative leaders.
• Evaluating the prevalence of four recommended practices for suicide prevention following hospital discharge.
• Building a resilient patient safety culture: a large healthcare organization's approach to systematically reviewing serious harm events.
• Optimizing the use of dose error reduction software on intravenous infusion pumps.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue, including recent cases and commentaries and AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Dental Care for People With Sickle Cell Disease: A Rapid Response Literature Review.
• Dental Care for People With Hemophilia: A Rapid Response Literature Review.

Register Now for AHRQ Webinars

• July 24, 2:30 to 4 p.m. ET: Medication Without Harm - How Digital Healthcare Tools Can Support Providers and Improve Patient Safety.
• July 25, 1 to 2:30 p.m. ET: Using AHRQ Resources To Enhance Surgical Team Communication. 

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Patient partnership tools to support medication safety in community-dwelling older adults: protocol for a nonrandomized stepped wedge clinical trial. Xiao Y, Fulda KG, Young RA, et al. JMIR Res Protoc 2024 Apr 29;13:e57878. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Development of a multimodal geomarker pipeline to assess the impact of social, economic, and environmental factors on pediatric health outcomes. Manning ER, Duan Q, Taylor S, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2024 Jun 20;31(7):1471-8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

The emergency department trigger tool: multicenter trigger query validation. Griffey RT, Schneider RM, Kocher KE, et al. Acad Emerg Med 2024 Jun;31(6):564-75. Epub 2024 Mar 18. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Patient perceptions of and experiences with stigma using telehealth for opioid use disorder treatment: a qualitative analysis. Couch JV, Whitcomb M, Buchheit BM, et al. Harm Reduct J 2024 Jun 27;21(1):125. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A systematic review of experimentally tested implementation strategies across health and human service settings: evidence from 2010-2022. Ashcraft LE, Goodrich DE, Hero J, et al. Implement Sci 2024 Jun 24;19(1):43. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

A nationally representative summary of 2020 changes in the use of health care in the United States. Decker SL, Zuvekas SH. J Ambul Care Manage 2024 Apr-Jun;47(2):64-83. Epub 2024 Feb 13. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Completion rates and timeliness of diagnostic colonoscopies for rectal bleeding in primary care. Campbell KA, Sternberg SB, Benneyan J, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2024 May;39(6):985-91. Epub 2023 Nov 8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Barriers and facilitators to guideline concordant dental antibiotic prescribing in the United States: a qualitative study of the National Dental PBRN. Ramanathan S, Yan C, Suda KJ, et al. J Public Health Dent 2024 Jun;84(2):163-74. Epub 2024 Apr 1. Access the abstract on PubMed®.