AHRQ Stats: Adverse Drug Events Involving Hypoglycemic Agents

In 2021, 7.5 percent of Hispanic patients, 6.6 percent of Black patients, 6.2 percent of patients with an “other” or unknown race, and 4.0 percent of White patients experienced adverse inpatient events involving hypoglycemic agents, which are used to control blood sugar levels in diabetic patients. (Source: AHRQ 2024 Chartbook on Patient Safety [PDF, 4 MB].)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Study Highlights Caregiver Needs in Mobile Health App Adoption.
• Register Now for July 25 Webinar on Using AHRQ Resources To Enhance Surgical Team Communication.
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network.
• Registration Open for June 27 Webinar Focused on Research on Person-Centered Care.
• New Coalition To Promote Greater Use of Preventive Services.
• AHRQ Seeks Ideas on Sustaining the Agency’s CDS Connect Initiative.
• AHRQ in the Professional Literature.

AHRQ Study Highlights Caregiver Needs in Mobile Health App Adoption

Family caregivers who assist people living with multiple chronic conditions often lack sufficient support, but caregiver apps can help by enhancing care coordination and planning among patients, caregivers and clinicians, according to a scoping review in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The research, authored by AHRQ researchers and other experts, identified important caregiver needs for information, support and care coordination for caregiving and self-care as well as desired app functionalities and features. Findings can inform developers and researchers in the design and implementation of mHealth apps to improve communication and outcomes of care. More research is needed to address the lack of studies about the specific needs of caregivers of people living with multiple chronic conditions, researchers asserted.

Register Now for July 25 Webinar on Using AHRQ Resources To Enhance Surgical Team Communication

Registration is open for a webinar on July 25 at 1 p.m. ET on using the AHRQ Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) Hospital Survey and TeamSTEPPS® resources to improve patient safety culture and surgical team communication. The SOPS Program helps healthcare organizations understand, measure and improve patient safety culture in healthcare settings. TeamSTEPPS provides evidence-based tools to optimize patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among healthcare teams, patients and family caregivers. The webinar will highlight how the University of North Carolina Department of Surgery used the AHRQ resources to improve patient safety culture and team communication.

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:

• When agency fails: an analysis of the association between hospital agency staffing and quality outcomes.
• Collective intelligence increases diagnostic accuracy in a general practice setting.
• Artificial intelligence and healthcare: a journey through history, present innovations, and future possibilities.

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).

Registration Open for June 27 Webinar Focused on Research on Person-Centered Care

Register now for an AHRQ webinar on June 27 from 2 to 3:15 p.m. ET on Research on Person-Centered Care. The webinar will highlight person-centered research techniques, models, tools and programs and their impact on patient health outcomes. Three presenters will discuss their research on the associations between shared decision-making and chronic care; ways primary care clinicians participate in models for connecting patients to community services; and implementation of a scalable, person-centered chronic pain management program. A Q&A session will follow the presentations. Advance registration is required.

New Coalition To Promote Greater Use of Preventive Services

A new coalition of public and private health organizations, including AHRQ, has launched a campaign to promote the availability of no-cost preventive services under the Affordable Care Act. The Promoting Health Through Prevention campaign will use HHS’ Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s MyHealthfinder and other communications channels to highlight the importance of screenings for cancer, behavioral health conditions, heart disease and other preventive services. Additional participating organizations include AHIP, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Cigna Healthcare, Elevance Health, Florida Blue, Highmark Health, Humana, Kaiser Permanente, Mental Health America, the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, National Association of Community Health Centers, NCQA, Quartz Health Solutions and the VBID Center at the University of Michigan.

AHRQ Seeks Ideas on Sustaining the Agency’s CDS Connect Initiative

A Request for Information (RFI) from AHRQ solicits potential collaborators to develop a new model for enhancing CDS Connect, the agency’s web-based platform that allows for authoring, sharing and reusing clinical decision support (CDS) so healthcare systems and developers can build upon what has already been developed. A recent AHRQ challenge competition invited proposals on enhancing business models and platform enhancements for CDS Connect to evolve as a national CDS hub. Based on competition results, AHRQ has issued the RFI to identify possible collaborators to ensure CDS Connect's future operations.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Implementing nasal povidone-iodine decolonization to reduce infections in hemodialysis units: a qualitative assessment. Dukes KC, Hockett Sherlock S, Racila AM, et al. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol 2024 May 23:1-6. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Pediatric sepsis in general emergency departments: association between pediatric sepsis case volume, care quality, and outcome. Scott HF, Lindberg DM, Brackman S, et al. Ann Emerg Med 2024 Apr;83(4):318-26. Epub 2023 Dec 7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Differences in provider approach to initiating and titrating guideline directed medical therapy in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Cordwin DJ, Guidi J, Alhashimi L, et al. BMC Cardiovasc Disord 2024 May 11;24(1):247. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Interdisciplinary videoconference model for identifying potential adverse transition of care events following hospital discharge to postacute care. Beiter ER, Shanbhag A, Junge-Maughan L, et al. BMJ Open Qual 2024 May 24;13(2). Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Barriers and facilitators to end-of-life care delivery in ICUs: a qualitative study. Janczewski LM, Chandrasekaran A, Abahuje E, et al. Crit Care Med 2024 Jun;52(6):e289-e98. Epub 2024 Feb 19. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Improving methods of clinical practice guidelines: from guidelines to pathways to fast-and-frugal trees and decision analysis to develop individualised patient care. Djulbegovic B, Hozo I, Cuker A, et al. J Eval Clin Pract 2024 Apr;30(3):393-402. Epub 2023 Dec 10. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Identifying sources of inter-hospital variation in episode spending for sepsis care. Sankaran R, Gulseren B, Prescott HC, et al. Med Care 2024 Jul;62(7):441-8. Epub 2024 Apr 16. Access the abstract on PubMed®.