Research Activities

June 1999, No. 227

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

Access to life-sustaining anti-HIV drugs is slowly improving for poor and uninsured patients

Departments

HIV/AIDS Research
   Choice of hospital, not just insurance status, determines care received by people with HIV

Health Care Quality
   Reliability of current physician report cards questioned
   Hospitals share quality of care report cards with administrators and key staff but doubt their value
   State-required hospital forms do not accurately document eligibility and consent for organ donation
   AHCPR's CAHPS® project is developing surveys designed to help consumers choose the right health plan

Long-term Care
   Quality of care is most important nursing home measure
   Residents of nursing homes with special care units and more physicians are less likely to be hospitalized

Primary Care
   Primary care physician referral rates are a physician-driven behavior

Outcomes/Effectiveness Research
   Researchers compare outcomes for pneumonia patients who receive outpatient treatment with those who are hospitalized
   More long-term research is needed on cryosurgery as a second-line therapy for prostate cancer

Health Care Use and Delivery
   Use of hormone replacement therapy may be more strongly linked to sociodemographic than clinical factors
   Self-reported health status is a strong predictor of health care utilization
   Concerns about mental and social well-being may strongly influence patients' treatment decisions
   Adolescents accurately characterize the preventive care they receive
   Early DNR orders do not seem to affect medical resource use
   Skepticism about the value of conventional medical care may be a risk factor for early death

Health Care Costs and Financing
   Annual health care costs associated with sinusitis and conjunctivitis are enormous
   Investor-owned and tax-exempt hospitals differ in their approach to diversification of services

Managed Care
   Managed care has spread from the United States to Latin America with an uncertain effect on quality and access to care
   Doctors who feel pressured by insurers to reduce services are more apt to be dissatisfied with medical practice
   Researchers examine impact of managed care on hospital-physician relationships and types of services offered

Rural Health
   Joining a hospital network may improve the fiscal viability of rural hospitals
   Conference attendees outline research agenda for community and migrant health centers

AHCPR News and Notes
   AHCPR to fund centers of excellence for research on health care markets and managed care

Announcements
   AHCPR unveils its updated health care quality improvement database
   AHCPR expands public access to two hospital databases
   New online service offers quick answers to questions about hospital care
   New MEPS chartbook of nursing home data is now available from AHCPR
   AHCPR funds new study on treating depression in teenagers
   AHCPR announces MEPS workshops
   Connecting Ethics and Health Policy, Pooks Hill Marriott, Bethesda, MD, October 1, 1999
   New projects funded

Research Briefs
   Assessing the generalizability of prognostic information
   Distributed decision support using a Web-based interface: Prevention of sudden cardiac death
   Conditional length of stay
   Methods for combining rates from several studies

AHCPR Publication No. 99-0038
Current as of June 1999

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities newsletter. June 1999, No. 227. AHCPR Publication No. 99-0038. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/jun99/

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