Medical care
-
US hospital discharge datasets typically report facility charges (ie, room and board), excluding professional fees (ie, attending physicians' charges). ⋯ Adjustments for professional fees are recommended when hospital facility-only financial data from US hospital discharge datasets are used to estimate health care costs.
-
To guide measure development, National Institutes of Health-supported Patient reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) investigators developed a hierarchical domain framework. The framework specifies health domains at multiple levels. The initial PROMIS domain framework specified that physical function and symptoms such as Pain and Fatigue indicate Physical Health (PH); Depression, Anxiety, and Anger indicate Mental Health (MH); and Social Role Performance and Social Satisfaction indicate Social Health (SH). We used confirmatory factor analyses to evaluate the fit of the hypothesized framework to data collected from a large sample. ⋯ Our findings generally support the PROMIS domain framework. Allowing Fatigue to load on both PH and MH improved fit considerably.
-
Hospital report cards and financial incentives linked to performance require clinical data that are reliable, appropriate, timely, and cost-effective to process. Pay-for-performance plans are transitioning to automated electronic health record (EHR) data as an efficient method to generate data needed for these programs. ⋯ Pay-for-performance plans that use only EHR data should carefully consider the measures and the structure of the EHR before data collection and financial incentive disbursement. For this study, we feel that a 10% difference in the total amount of incentive earnings disbursed based on AP-EHR data compared with manual review is acceptable given the time and resources required to abstract data from medical records.
-
Postacute care (PAC) rehabilitation aims to maximize independence and facilitate a safe community transition. Yet little is known about PAC patients' success in staying home after discharge or differences on this outcome across PAC providers. ⋯ Reentry into the health care system after PAC community discharge is common. Because of the distinct care needs of the PAC population there is a need for a quality measure that complements the current 30-day hospital readmission outcome and captures the objectives of PAC rehabilitation.
-
High-quality communication and a positive patient-provider relationship are aspects of patient-centered care, a crucial component of quality. We assessed racial/ethnic disparities in patient-reported communication problems and perceived discrimination in maternity care among women nationally and measured racial/ethnic variation in the correlates of these outcomes. ⋯ Race/ethnicity was associated with perceived racial discrimination, but diabetes and hypertension were consistent predictors of communication problems and perceptions of discrimination. Efforts to improve communication and reduce perceived discrimination are an important area of focus for improving patient-centered care in maternity services.