News

AHRQ Issues Regulatory Update

Feb 13, 2024
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has issued its weekly regulatory update, which can be read below.

AHRQ News Now banner updated 2023

February 13, 2024, Issue #900

AHRQ Stats: Electronic Nicotine Product Use Among Adults

Overall, 15.5 percent of U.S. noninstitutionalized adults reported having used an electronic nicotine product in 2021. (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #554, Characteristics of Young Adults Aged 18-24 Who Had Ever Used an Electronic Nicotine Product, 2021.)

Today's Headlines:

Patient Narratives Can Catalyze Staff Improvement and Bolster Survey Scores

narrativesPatient narratives—feedback from patients in their own words, collected through structured open-ended survey questions—can help improve patient experience and organizational learning, according to two new AHRQ-funded studies. The first study, published in Health Services Research, examined an online reporting tool designed to interpret patients’ narrative feedback in 22 ambulatory practice sites. Use of the tool, which included AHRQ’s CAHPS® Clinician & Group Survey with Narrative Item Sets, improved scores for office staff interactions and wait time, but provider listening scores slightly declined. In the second study, published in Health Care Management Review, researchers explored how sharing patients' stories could improve healthcare in nine primary care clinics over a year. They found that regularly sharing patients’ narratives with staff significantly improved patient experience survey scores, depending on staff confidence levels.

 

Making Healthcare Safer IV Report Expanded With New Evidence Reviews

New evidence reviews from AHRQ are available to help healthcare leaders prioritize and implement strategies to improve patient safety in five areas:

The reviews are part of the agency’s Making Healthcare Safer IV report, a continuous updating of patient safety harms and practices. First published in 2001, Making Healthcare Safer reports have consolidated information sources for healthcare providers, health system administrators, researchers, and government agencies. Among additional patient safety topics that will be added to Making Healthcare Safer IV in coming months: fatigue and sleepiness of clinicians due to hours of service; transmission-based precautions for multidrug-resistant organisms; and infection surveillance for Clostridiodes difficile, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CRE), and Candida auris.

Register Now for March 7 Webinar on Integrating Behavioral Health in Primary Care

behavioralA webinar on March 7 from 2 to 3:15 p.m. ET will highlight AHRQ-funded research on the integration of behavioral health in primary care. Sponsored by AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research, the webinar will feature AHRQ grantees who are researching behavioral health tools and interventions in ambulatory care settings. It will also highlight tools and research from The Academy, AHRQ’s national resource for integrating behavioral health and primary care. Attendees will be encouraged to participate in a question-and-answer session. Register for the webinar.

 

Eastern Virginia Medical School Uses, Contributes to AHRQ's Healthcare Simulation Dictionary

EVMSA new AHRQ Impact Case Study tells how Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) in Norfolk, Va., uses and contributes to the AHRQ Healthcare Simulation Dictionary. Simulation in healthcare creates a safe learning environment for healthcare practitioners and teams to test and improve new clinical processes and techniques before touching patients. EVMS has been incorporating simulation training into its medical education for about 30 years. (Above, EVMS Simulation Director Bob Armstrong reviews the AHRQ Healthcare Simulation Dictionary with team members.) Access the EVMS Impact Case Study and explore nearly 500 AHRQ Impact Case Studies by topic, location, or product.

 

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue or access recent cases and commentaries in AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

Report Highlights 30 Years of AHRQ’s Primary Care Research

A new report from AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research describes three decades (1990–2020) of AHRQ’s primary care research and highlights how that research has impacted delivery of primary care. The report details AHRQ’s investments in research to improve primary care organization, workforce, quality and safety, digital healthcare, finance and cost, and prevention. These investments have positively impacted research, policy, clinical practice, and health outcomes. Find out more about this research and tools and resources to support primary care at AHRQ’s National Center for Excellence in Primary Care Research.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

A retrospective cohort study of the 2018 angiotensin receptor blocker recalls and subsequent drug shortages in patients with hypertension. Devine JW, Tadrous M, Hernandez I, et al. J Am Heart Assoc. 2024 Jan 2;13(1):e032266. Epub 2023 Dec 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Ambulatory care coordination data gathering and use. Geary CR, Hook M, Popejoy L, et al. Comput Inform Nurs. 2024 Jan;42(1):63-70. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Hemoglobin on admission for childbirth and postpartum acute care use in a southeastern health care system. Bruce KE, Busse CE, Tully KP, et al. Am J Perinatol. 2024 Jan 11. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Organizational and community resilience for COVID-19 and beyond: leveraging a system for health and social services integration. Fleming MD, Safaeinili N, Knox M, et al. Health Serv Res. 2024 Feb;59(suppl 1):e14250. Epub 2023 Oct 16. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Anesthesia workspaces for safe medication practices: design guidelines. Mohammadigorji S, Joseph A, Mihandoust S, et al. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal. 2024 Jan;17(1):64-83. Epub 2023 Aug 8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Automating risk stratification for geriatric syndromes in the emergency department. Haimovich AD, Shah MN, Southerland LT, et al. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2024 Jan;72(1):258-67. Epub 2023 Oct 9. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Health literacy-informed communication to reduce discharge medication errors in hospitalized children: a randomized clinical trial. Carroll AR, Johnson JA, Stassun JC, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2024 Jan 2;7(1):e2350969. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

The TeamSTEPPS for improving diagnosis team assessment tool: scale development and psychometric evaluation. Ali KJ, Goeschel CA, Eckroade MM, et al. Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf. 2024 Feb;50(2):95-103. Epub 2023 Aug 30. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Contact Information

For comments or questions about AHRQ News Now, contact Bruce Seeman, (301) 427-1998 or Bruce.Seeman@ahrq.hhs.gov.