Applicants Sought for National Coordinating Center and National Evaluation Center for State-Based Healthcare Extension Service

AHRQ Stats: Disparities in Sepsis-Related Hospitalization Length of Stay

In 2021, non-Hispanic Asian and Pacific Islander patients were hospitalized for an average of 9.7 days for sepsis stays, Hispanic patients an average of 10.3 days, and non-Hispanic Black patients an average of 10.6 days—considerably longer than the average 8.6-day stay for sepsis hospitalizations among White patients. (Source: AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #309, Racial and Ethnic Differences in Inpatient Stays Involving Sepsis, 2016-2021 [PDF, 856 KB].)

Today's Headlines:

• Applicants Sought for National Coordinating Center and National Evaluation Center for State-Based Healthcare Extension Service.
• AHRQ Views: Portrait of Sepsis Reveals Its Alarming Human Toll.
• Winners Announced in Challenge Competition on Data Visualizations To Advance Equity.
• Data Standards Established To Support Long COVID Treatment and Research.
• Register for Upcoming Events.
• Issue Brief Highlights Patients’ Growing Role in Diagnosis.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Register for Oct. 30 Webinar on Improving Hospital Handoffs Using AHRQ’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® Hospital Survey.
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

Applicants Sought for National Coordinating Center and National Evaluation Center for State-Based Healthcare Extension Service

Two new Notices of Funding Opportunity are available for applicants seeking to join AHRQ’s recently launched Healthcare Extension Service: State-based Solutions for Healthcare Improvement:

• National Coordinating Center for AHRQ’s Healthcare Extension Service - State-based Solutions to Healthcare Improvement (U54).
• National Evaluation Center for AHRQ’s Healthcare Extension Service: State-based Solutions to Healthcare Improvement (U19).

These notices follow a recent Notice of Funding Opportunity to award up to 15 grants for state-based Healthcare Extension Cooperatives to accelerate the dissemination and implementation of patient-centered outcomes research evidence into healthcare delivery. The National Coordinating Center will provide technical assistance, learning networks and communications and dissemination guidance to the Healthcare Extension Cooperatives. Registration is open for an optional pre-application technical assistance webinar on Oct. 10 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. ET. The National Evaluation Center will assess program implementation and impact. Information about a technical assistance webinar for this funding announcement is forthcoming. Questions may be submitted to AHRQ_HES@ahrq.hhs.gov.

AHRQ Views: Portrait of Sepsis Reveals Its Alarming Human Toll

A new AHRQ report on the rising human toll of sepsis and its burden on hospital care is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post. Based on data from AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP), the report shows that between 2016 and 2021, sepsis hospitalization increased 40 percent and hospital costs soared from $31.2 billion to $52.1 billion. More than 300,000 people died in the hospital from sepsis in 2021. The blog’s authors—AHRQ Director Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., and Pamela Owens, Ph.D., healthcare data and analytics division director in AHRQ’s Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety—assert that progress is occurring in the battle against sepsis, but more research is urgently needed to understand the condition, improve diagnosis and advance treatment strategies. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Winners Announced in Challenge Competition on Data Visualizations To Advance Equity

First- and second-place winners have been named in AHRQ’s challenge competition, Harnessing Data Visualization To Advance Equity in Clinical Services. The goal of the Challenge was to create data visualizations to identify disparities in the receipt of clinical preventive services and use these visualizations to create or adapt interventions to address these disparities. The winners are:

• First place: Valleywise Health, which created clinical dashboards to optimize depression screening and behavioral health integration at Valleywise Women’s Health Clinics. Prize amount: $150,000.
• Second place: Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research, which developed an interactive data visualization tool for cervical cancer screening. Prize amount: $100,000.

Learn more about AHRQ’s challenge competitions.

Data Standards Established To Support Long COVID Treatment and Research

The Multiple Chronic Conditions Electronic Care Plan (eCare Plan) project, a partnership between AHRQ and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, has developed interoperable data standards to allow sharing and aggregation of patient data across healthcare settings and different electronic health records. The eCare Plan now includes HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards specifically for Long COVID. Authors of a study published in JAMIA Open asserted the new standards will enable the sharing of long COVID-related health concerns, interventions and outcomes for coordinated person-centered care across clinical sites and settings to improve care delivery and will facilitate the use of real-world data for Long COVID research. Access the study.

Register for Upcoming Events

• Oct. 8, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET: AHRQ Summit to Address Emergency Department Boarding. The livestream will be aimed at identifying solutions to circumstances that sometimes force patients to spend hours—or in some cases, days—in the emergency department while waiting for an inpatient bed or transfer to another facility. Access the livestream link on the day of the summit.
• Oct., 8, noon to 1 p.m. ET: Workforce Safety and Wellbeing Webinar Series - (Session 1) Leadership Strategies that Improve Workforce Safety and Wellbeing. Sponsored by the AHRQ-led National Action Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety, this webinar will provide practical tools and strategies while offering a systems-based approach to integrating staff well-being into leadership practices. Register.
• Oct. 17, 1 to 2 p.m. ET: Introducing the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Outpatient Mental Health Survey. This webinar will focus on the purpose and design of CAHPS’ new Outpatient Mental Health Survey. Register.

Issue Brief Highlights Patients’ Growing Role in Diagnosis

A new AHRQ issue brief highlights the crucial shift in healthcare toward more active patient involvement in the diagnostic process. Research indicates that poor communication between medical professionals and patients accounts for up to 78 percent of diagnostic errors in primary care settings. Efforts to increase patient involvement require the development and maintenance of frameworks that promote patient leadership and collaboration, integrating valuable insights and personal experiences into the diagnostic process. Access the new issue brief—The Patient’s Role in Diagnostic Safety and Excellence: From Passive Reception Toward Co-Design—and others in AHRQ’s series exploring diagnostic safety topics.

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:

• What is safety leadership? A systematic review of definitions.
• Stop the line: interventions to prevent retained surgical items.
• Factors influencing the reporting of medication errors and near misses among nurses: a systematic mixed methods review.

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

Register for Oct. 30 Webinar on Improving Hospital Handoffs Using AHRQ’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® Hospital Survey

Registration is open for a webinar on Oct. 30 from 1 to 2 p.m. ET to highlight how Riverside Walter Reed Hospital in Gloucester, VA, used AHRQ’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) Hospital Survey to enhance its patient safety journey. Presenters will describe their strategies for administering the SOPS Survey, and explain how their survey results and SOPS resources are used to improve patient handoffs in medical-surgical units.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Technical Brief (draft open for comment): Updating the Framework for Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report.
• Statistical Brief: Prevalence of Long COVID Among Adults Who Have Ever Had COVID-19, by Selected Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, Spring 2023.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Civil monetary penalties for EMTALA violations involving minors, 2002-2023. Terp S, Ahmed S, Reichert Z, et al. Hosp Pediatr 2024 Aug;14(8):674-81. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Patient surveys are used most often to assess health care innovations, rigorous methods are less common. Qureshi N, Quigley DD. Am J Med Qual 2024 Jul-Aug;39(4):188-96. Epub 2024 Jul 8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Parent, physician, and therapist experience of in-person, hybrid, and all-virtual models of physiatry care for children with special health care needs. Haynes SC, Davidson L, Tancredi DJ, et al. Acad Pediatr 2024 Sep-Oct;24(7):1141-9. Epub 2024 May 6. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Pack-year smoking history: an inadequate and biased measure to determine lung cancer screening eligibility. Potter AL, Xu NN, Senthil P, et al. J Clin Oncol 2024 Jun 10;42(17):2026-37. Epub 2024 Mar 27. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Shift-level team familiarity is associated with improved outcomes in mechanically ventilated adults. Costa DK, Yakusheva O, Khadr L, et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2024 Aug 1;210(3):311-7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Patient and family contributions to improve the diagnostic process through the OurDX electronic health record tool: a mixed method analysis. Bell SK, Harcourt K, Dong J, et al. BMJ Qual Saf 2024 Aug 16;33(9):597-608. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Factors associated with patient engagement in a health and social needs case management program. Lo CH, Knox MJ, Hernandez EA, et al. J Am Board Fam Med 2024 May-Jun;37(3):418-26. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Macular degeneration drug prescribing patterns after step therapy introduction in Medicare Advantage. Liu A, Anderson KE, Levy J, et al. JAMA Health Forum 2024 Aug 2;5(8):e242446. Access the abstract on PubMed®.