Medical care
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Although the relationship between surgical volume and mortality is well established, the mechanisms underlying these associations remain uncertain. We sought to determine whether increased mortality at low-volume centers was due to higher complication rates or less success in rescuing patients from complications. ⋯ Differences in mortality between high and low-volume hospitals are not associated with large differences in complication rates. Instead, these differences seem to be associated with the ability of a hospital to effectively rescue patients from complications. Strategies focusing on the timely recognition and management of complications once they occur may be essential to improving outcomes at low-volume hospitals.
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The impact of cuts in reimbursement, such as the Balanced Budget Act in the United States or global budgeting, on the quality of patient care is an important issue in health-care reform. Limited information is available regarding whether reimbursement cuts are associated with processes and outcomes of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) care. ⋯ The mortality of AMI patients increases under increased financial strain from cuts in reimbursement. Nevertheless, the use of PCI is not affected throughout the study period. Reductions in the quantity or quality of services with a negative contribution margin or high cost, such as nurse staffing, may explain the association between reimbursement cuts and AMI outcome.
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Better hospital nurse staffing, more educated nurses, and improved nurse work environments have been shown to be associated with lower hospital mortality. Little is known about whether and under what conditions each type of investment works better to improve outcomes. ⋯ Although the positive effect of increasing percentages of Bachelors of Science in Nursing Degree nurses is consistent across all hospitals, lowering the patient-to-nurse ratios markedly improves patient outcomes in hospitals with good work environments, slightly improves them in hospitals with average environments, and has no effect in hospitals with poor environments.
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Quality improvement (QI) holds promise to improve quality of care; however, organizations often struggle with its implementation. It has been recommended that practitioners, managers, and researchers attempt to increase systematic understanding of the structure, practices, and context of organizations that facilitate or impede the implementation of QI innovations. ⋯ The review revealed several important gaps in the QI implementation literature. Studies often lacked clear conceptual frameworks to guide the research, which may hinder efforts to compare relationships across studies. Studies also tended to adopt designs that were narrowly focused on independent effects of predictors and did not include holistic frameworks to capture interactions among the many factors involved in implementation. Other design limitations included the use of cross-sectional designs, single-source data collection, and potential selection bias among study participants.