Research Activities

March 2000, No. 235

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

System errors, not patient factors, are responsible for most hospital medication errors

Smoking Cessation

Health and economic benefits are substantial when pregnant women stop smoking

Heart Disease/Stroke

Lipid-lowering drugs are underused in patients hospitalized with recurrent heart attacks
Specialists and generalists working together provide the best care for heart disease patients
Men are four times more likely than women to suffer a stroke due to large-vessel atherosclerosis
Evidence shows that warfarin is the drug of choice to prevent stroke in certain patients with atrial fibrillation

Clinical Decisionmaking

Physicians in HMOs should more aggressively manage hypertension
Bilingual asthma scale can help clinicians assess symptoms in Latino children
Routine medical testing before cataract surgery usually is not necessary
Less than 10 percent of medical decisions are made with participation of a fully informed patient

Primary Care

Race and ethnicity play an important role in patient satisfaction with primary care physicians
Having an ongoing relationship with a doctor greatly reduces ER visits by elderly patients
Doctors' psychological traits have little if any bearing on their referral decisions
Primary care providers often fail to cover the most significant injury prevention issues during well-child visits

Quality of Care

Patient satisfaction with hospital care depends in part on the degree of symptom improvement during the stay
Elderly patients' satisfaction with doctor visits does not necessarily indicate quality of care
Patients base their satisfaction with pharmacy care on their social interaction with the pharmacist, not technical quality

Health Care Costs and Financing

Cost does not appear to be the main factor in insurers' drug coverage decisions
Worker preference may contribute to poorer health insurance coverage by small firms
Significant State-to-State differences found in health insurance offer rates, choice of plans, and premiums
Medicaid programs provide a safety net for the uninsured, but they also crowd out private insurance

Managed Care

Financial incentives based on patient insurance may have unintended consequences
Local leaders and circumstances determine how the arrival of managed care will be received in rural communities

Health Care Delivery/Access

Mandating longer hospital stays for newborns may not be the best way to prevent readmissions for jaundice
Barriers to quality cancer care persist
Providing a written appointment for followup care improves visit compliance among patients after hospital discharge
Case managers help people with HIV obtain home health care, emotional counseling, and other support services

Nursing Research

Researchers are studying the relationship between nurse staffing levels and nursing-sensitive patient outcomes

AHRQ News and Notes

National Guideline Clearinghouse™ more than triples in size
AHRQ releases Nation's most current hospital discharge data

Announcements

AHRQ announces new grant opportunities in health services research education
AHRQ to cosponsor second annual meeting for child health services researchers
Correction
Announcing a New, Enhanced HCUPnet

Current as of March 2000
AHRQ Publication No. 00-0025

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities newsletter. March 2000, No. 235. AHRQ Publication No. 00-0025. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/mar00/

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