Change Healthcare releases results of its ninth annual survey of the health care industry.
Use of a transitional care service did not improve outcomes for patients with heart failure, according to a study in JAMA.
Gee, what a shock, hospital consolidation, vertical or horizontal doesn’t have significant quality benefits.
A study in the Annals of Surgery focuses on improving handoffs from surgery and studied the use of standardized handoff forms and processes. While the completeness of information improved, handoff took longer, i.e., cost more, and there was no improvement in mortality or length of stay. Costs more and no real improvement in outcomes; sound like a lot of so-called quality improvement.
https://insights.ovid.com/crossref?an=00000658-900000000-95308A number of health care organizations have joined with the National Quality Forum to create a consistent, supposedly more limited, set of quality measures to use with providers.
Some good news for patients and proponents of better quality care, as hospital acquired infection rates have dropped in recent years.
Mandatory ratios about nurse staffing have no impact on outcomes, according to a new study.
A study in the American Journal of Managed Care finds that a high-touch primary care group delivers better outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has some recommendations for updating Medicare’s hospital quality measurement programs.
An interesting study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that removal of incentives relating to quality of care measures decreases performance.
Adjusting Medicare Advantage stars ratings for socioeconomic factors would change plan rankings, according to a Health Affairs article.
A research letter and an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association illustrate the potential pitfalls of guideline-based care.
Research carried in Health Services Research finds generally better quality in Medicare Advantage plans than in fee-for-service Medicare.
Research carried at the National Bureau of Economic Research examines what happens when you legislate lower ER response times.