IDSRN Project Awards

Field Partnerships to Conduct and Use Research

Awards in Fiscal Year 2002

Organization and Coordination of Care
Improving Patient Safety
Improving Long-term Care
Readiness for Bioterrorist Events

Organization and Coordination of Care

Developing Data to Monitor and Reduce Emergency Department Overcrowding
Partner: HMO Research Network
Description: HealthPartners and Kaiser Permenante Colorado used data from emergency department (ED), ambulatory care, and inpatient settings to develop measures of ED overcrowding, its causes and its consequences. The study intent was to provide health care systems and their policymakers with the means to accurately measure the risk and extent of ED overcrowding.
Period: 04/02-4/03
Funding: $249,217

Impact of Payment Policies on the Cost, Content and Quality of Care
Partner: University of Minnesota
Description: Economic incentives inherent in the relationship between health plans and health care providers (physicians and hospitals) were examined to identify the influence of such incentives on the cost, quality, and type of services received by patients.
Period: 04/02-10/03
Funding: $249,978

Improving Processes of Care and Coordination: Identifying and Sharing What Works
Partner: HMO Research Network
Description: The MacColl Institute for Healthcare Innovation provided a conceptual framework, research context, and menu of potential best practices in one or more areas of care process redesign and/or coordination of care. These data, along with existing evaluation data, were used to assess "best practices" in care and coordination.
Period: 05/02-09/03
Funding: $249,833

Use of Electronic Communication among Patients and Providers to Improve Care
Partner: Abt Associates
Description: Abt Associates and Geisinger Health System assessed how Geisinger's electronic medical record for ambulatory care and other electronic communication, such as patient access to portions of his/her medical record, can improve quality and other aspects of health care.
Period: 08/02-08/03
Funding: $199,681

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Improving Patient Safety

Modeling Techniques for Transitions of Care in Integrated Delivery Systems
Partner: Abt Associates
Description: Abt Associates and Geisinger Health System modeled transition of care factors that contribute to risk and hazards associated with iatrogenic injury to patients as they pass through a series of complex subsystems of medical care.
Period: 07/02-11/03
Funding: $249,906

Use of Electronic Communication among Patients and Providers to Improve Care
Partner: HMO Research Network
Description: Investigators at Kaiser San Francisco assessed how electronic communication, which includes E-mail and other Internet-based methods of communication, can improve communication, knowledge, access, effectiveness, timeliness, patient safety, and other aspects of health care.
Period: 08/02-3/04
Funding: $199,122

Patient Characteristics, Adverse Drug Reactions, Best Practices, and Patient Safety: A Study of HIV Care in San Francisco
Partner: HMO Research Network
Description: This project evaluated practices undertaken to reduce adverse drug reactions and other untoward consequences of treatment for persons who are HIV positive.
Period: 09/02-10/04
Funding: $543,991

Utilizing the Electronic Medical Record and Case Management to Improve Patient Safety in the Rural Elderly
Partner: Abt Associates
Description: Geisinger Health System identified elderly persons at risk for falls and compared three different approaches to reducing falls in those living in the community. The approaches were: (1) a medical record intervention that notified the clinician of the patient's increased fall risk and directed him/her to an evidence-based fall prevention practice guideline located on the Electronic Medical Record (EMR); (2) both the medical record intervention and a prompt to refer the patient to a Geriatric Assessment Clinic and provide feedback to the referring physician; and (3) a community-based care management intervention that included assessment by a case manager and referral for visual screening, physical therapy evaluations, or geriatric assessment clinic as deemed appropriate. A control group of patients received usual care from their physicians.
Period: 09/02-08/04
Funding: $278,993

Prevalence and Strategies for Appropriate Prescription Medication Dosing for Children
Partner: HMO Research Network
Description:Kaiser Permanente Northwest assessed ambulatory prescription medication errors for children to broaden knowledge on the types of errors that occur and how to most effectively reduce errors. The study examined the impact of a computerized physician order entry system and other interventions that address medication errors.
Period: 11/02-4/04
Funding: $194,836

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Improving Long-term Care

Care for Suspected Pneumonia: the Evercare Model
Partner: Center for Health Care Policy and Evaluation (CHCPE)
Description: Investigators identified factors that affect the quality of care received by nursing home residents suspected of having pneumonia. Analyses determined the facility, provider, and resident characteristics that influence the adherence of nurse practitioners to treatment guidelines, patient mortality and hospitalization rates, and time to recovery.
Period: 11/02-4/04
Funding: $209,968

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Readiness for Bioterrorist Events

Optimizing Clinical Preparedness for Bioterrorist Attacks Using Simulation Modeling and Data from Recent Anthrax Attacks
Partner: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Description: A Points of Distribution (POD) simulation model previously developed by Weill for the IDSRN was refined and has been disseminated to local, State and Federal governments. The model includes an outpatient prophylaxis component and a hospital surge capacity component. The refinement included adding real time data from actual anthrax cases into the surge capacity component of the model.
Period: 04/02-03/03
Funding: $164,989

National Guidelines for Mass Distribution Centers
Partner: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Description: Weill assembled resource materials and developed national guidelines for mass prophylaxis distribution centers to assist national public health authorities. The resource materials included generation of computer simulation models, establishment of a "best practices" databank, and development of a clearing/warehouse Web site.
Period: 09/02-04/03
Funding: $240,000

Predicting Health Care Use Resulting from Bioterrorism: Tools to Aid State Planning
Partner: Emory Center on Health Outcomes and Quality
Description: Terrorism-induced psychological and clinical sequelae have a great potential to overburden health care systems. There is some evidence that even in less-affected geographic areas, people will experience stress symptoms that may persist for some time. Emory examined the large-scale impact on the health care system of terrorism and anthrax events in the fall of 2001. Stress-related medical resource use patterns in inpatient, outpatient and emergency room settings before, during and after these events were analyzed for persons insured by Aetna across the United States. The study accounted for seasonality, geographic distance from the events, short- and long-term impact of the events, and impact on special populations. The goal of the study was to permit improvement in future bioterrorism resource allocation planning activities.
Period: 10/02-09/03
Funding: $269,707

A Systematic Regional Inventory of Critical Resources to Respond to Bioterrorism
Partner: Abt Associates
Description: A Web-based data repository, accompanied by a "process" manual, was developed to serve as a supply inventory to improve preparedness for a bioterrorist threat. The Web-accessible relational database is available for others who wish to adapt it for their own needs. The geographic area of interest from which data were drawn to populate the supply inventory is the six-county Geisinger catchment area in east central Pennsylvania.
Period: 10/02-12/03
Funding: $477,772

AHRQ-sponsored Workbook for Sharing Regional Bioterrorist Preparedness Tools
Partner: Research Triangle Institute
Description: Using Intermountain Health Care and the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center as examples of integrated delivery systems, Research Triangle Institute (RTI) assessed the health system requirement and interorganizational relationships necessary for regional bioterrorism preparedness. The assessment examined the effects of regional care models and their impact on resource allocation and capacity in the event of a potential bioterrorist event, and the full spectrum of expected health care needs following a potential bioterrorist event, including hospital, home care, and long-term care needs.
Period: 10/02-9/04
Funding: $485,877

Rocky Mountain Regional Health Emergency Assistance Line and Triage Hub (HEALTH) Model
Partner: Denver Health
Description: Denver Health assessed requirements, specifications and resources to develop a public health emergency contact center in Colorado and Hawaii, with exportability to seven other states. The model addresses integration with public health agencies and efficient management of patient demand surges during and after a public health emergency such as a bioterrorist event.
Period: 10/02-10/03
Funding: $267,056

Rocky Mountain Regional Care Model for Bioterrorism Preparedness
Partner: Denver Health
Description: Denver Health assessed surge capacity and short- and long-term health system needs for regional bioterrorism preparedness. The study examined effects of regional care models and their impact on resource allocation and capacity in the event of a potential bioterrorist event; the effect of a potential bioterrorist event on hospital and health system's costs, outcomes, and staffing; facility characteristics needed to establish isolation or quarantine units for a region; and characteristics of the model that are exportable to regional, state and local policymakers.
Period: 10/02-10/03
Funding: $452,386

Developing Tools for State-wide Planning and Response to Bioterrorist Attacks
Partner: Weill Medical College of Cornell University
Description: The goal of the project was to expand and implement New York Presbyterian Healthcare System's existing surge capacity information system (HERIS, Hospital Emergency Response Information System) as a regional model for New York State. The information system estimates staffing requirements, cost and outcomes of a bioterrorist event affecting NYPHS and establishes appropriate data systems and readiness measures. Weill developed risk communication messages and dissemination plans for NYPHS staff, New York metro area health care providers, and the public.
Period: 10/02-10/03
Funding: $338,177

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Current as of February 2005

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Internet Citation:

IDSRN Project Awards: Field Partnerships to Conduct and Use Research: Awards in Fiscal Year 2002. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/idsrnproj02.htm

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