Research Activities

December 2008, No. 340

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Contents

About Research Activities

Feature Story

More than 2 million children with insured parents are uninsured

Patient Safety and Quality

Few medical trainees are trained to disclose errors to patients by the time they assume some patient care
Identifying drug orders stopped within 45 minutes of prescribing can help detect medication errors
Fall prevention program yields benefits at first then wanes
Analysis of care quality is nearly universal among HMO health plans
A multifaceted quality improvement program can have a robust impact on the quality of primary care
AHRQ sponsors first theme issue of Health Services Research with focus on improving efficiency and value in health care

Health Information Technology

Children get less safety benefit than adults from hospital computer order entry systems
Hospital processes are the usual causes for workarounds to medication barcode scanning systems
Electronic tools could substantially reduce medication errors in primary care

Women's Health

Physical demands of a pregnant woman's job affect the baby's birth date and weight
Depression symptoms are similar in pregnant and nonpregnant women

Child/Adolescent Health

Changing criteria in a definition of high-risk asthma may help pinpoint those who will need the most care
Time from sedation to discharge in a pediatric endoscopy unit is similar for drugs administered by an anesthesiologist or an endoscopist

Elderly/Long-term Care

Study examines the impact of Medicare Part D on drug adherence among the elderly
Medicare patients with cancer don't switch from managed care to fee-for-service
A nursing home's strategic orientation influences how it reacts to publication of its care quality scores

Chronic Disease

Lack of accessibility and affordability are linked to underdiagnosis of chronic disease in blacks and Hispanics
People with diabetes and depression are less likely to self-manage their diabetes
People with arthritis and lupus have less functionality after strokes than others without those conditions
Hypertension questionnaire exposes knowledge gaps in New Orleans

Emergency Medicine

One in five patients with asthma receives unnecessary antibiotics at emergency department visits
Injuries account for a nearly one-third of pediatric emergency department visits

Pharmaceutical Research

Patients prescribed antidepressants from psychiatrists are more likely to receive and continue higher doses
American College of Rheumatology issues recommendations on prescribing drugs for rheumatoid arthritis

Outcomes/Effectiveness Research

Study validates American Joint Committee on Cancer's survival rates for stage IV melanoma
Families of liver transplant recipients age 5 and older have higher stress levels than either families of younger liver transplant recipients or a control group

Acute Care/Hospitalization

Study finds that specialty cardiac hospitals are similar to general hospitals in providing high-quality care for certain heart patients
Few gene variants associated with acute coronary syndrome are tied to increased deaths among such patients

Health Care Costs and Financing

Combination antihypertensive drugs raise out-of-pocket costs for patients

Emergency Preparedness

Studies evaluate hospital disaster drill tools

Agency News and Notes

One in 10 adults are being treated for arthritis
One in five hospital admissions are for patients with mental disorders
Lung cancer rates are dropping but hospitalization rates remain constant

Announcements

New inventory of HHS quality measures seeks to improve public- and private-sector performance measurement efforts

Research Briefs

Research Briefs
Visit the AHRQ Patient Safety Network Web Site

AHRQ Publication No. 09-RA003
Current as of December 2008

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Internet Citation:

Research Activities Newsletter. December 2008, No. 340. AHRQ Publication No. 09-RA003. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/dec08/

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