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Health Care Report Card Compendium [May 31, 2007] Gap Between College Goals And College Preparedness [May 30, 2007] Future Of Medical Education To Be Examined [May 29, 2007] WHO Assembly Reaches Agreement On Major Public Health Issues [May 25, 2007] Coordination Between Formal Providers And Informal Caregivers [May 24, 2007] Innovations In Public Health: Understanding State Public Health [May 23, 2007] Graduate Education And American Competitiveness [May 22, 2007] Wages Of Health Professionals [May 21, 2007] World Health Assembly Focuses On Key Health Issues [May 18, 2007] House-Senate Conferees Reach Agreement On Budget Resolution [May 17, 2007] Trends In The Supply Of U.S. Doctors [May 16, 2007] Comparative International Performance Of U.S. Health Care [May 15, 2007] Integrative Medicine Consult Service Established at the NIH Clinical Center [May 14, 2007] APTA Selects New CEO [May 11, 2007] New Web Resource for Accessing Information On Genetic Diseases [May 10, 2007] Enrollment In Postsecondary Education Institutions, Graduate Rates, And Financial Statistics [May 9, 2007] Meeting The Long-Term Care Needs Of Baby Boomers [May 8, 2007] WHO Online Tool To Improve Clinical Trial Transparency [May 7, 2007] Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Prevalence Data [May 4, 2007] How Healthy Younger Adults Make Use Of Genetic Tests [May 3, 2007] The Future Of Disability In America [May 2, 2007] Trends In Health Status And Health Care Use Among Older Woman [May 1, 2007] Congressional Inquiry Of Drug Company Grants For Continuing Medical Education [April 30, 2007] Patient-Reported Safety And Quality of Care [April 30, 2007] Center For Health Policy Simulation [April 17, 2007] Key Reports On Genomics Released [April 16, 2007] Older Driver Safety [April 13, 2007] Literacy In Everyday Life [April 12, 2007] Obesity Rate Increasd By 50% In Five-Year Period [April 11, 2007] Language Proficiency And Adverse Events In U.S. Hospitals [April 10, 2007] The Learning Healthcare System: Workshop Summary [April 9, 2007] Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity & Medical Care [April 6, 2007] Tools And Systems for Health Promotion And Disease Prevention [April 5, 2007] Patient Safety In American Hospitals [April 4, 2007] Hospital Performance Improvement: Trends In Quality And Efficiency [April 3, 2007] Employees In Postsecondary Institutions And Salaries Of Full-Time Instructional Faculty [April 2, 2007] Health Care Report Card Compendium With rising interest in information about the quality of care delivered by health care providers, HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has developed a new Web tool demonstrating a variety of approaches for health quality report cards. The new Health Care Report Card Compendium is a searchable directory of over 200 samples of report cards produced by a variety of organizations. The samples show formats and approaches for providing comparative information on the quality of health plans, hospitals, medical groups, individual physicians, nursing homes, and other providers of care. The Health Care Report Card Compendium can be accessed by clicking Gap Between College Goals And College Preparedness Only one-third of seventh and eighth graders polled say they know what it takes to prepare for college, yet more than 90 percent believe attending college is in their future. Those are just a few of the findings from a February survey of more than 1,800 middle school students conducted by the National Association of Secondary School Principals and Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) International, in partnership with the KnowHow2GO campaign. The new report, A Voice from the Middle , found that: -93 percent of students polled say there is "no chance" they will drop out of high school and not graduate. -40 percent of students who say there's a chance they may drop out of high school also say low grades and their inability to keep up with assignments would be the primary reason. -83 percent of students know little or nothing about the classes they need to take to graduate from high school. -72 percent of students indicated that only one in five teachers had been helpful throughout their school career. -92 percent of the students polled cited cost as the reason they might not attend college. Highlights of the report may be accessed by clicking http://www.pdkintl.org/ms_poll/07ms_poll_highlights.pdf . Future Of Medical Education To Be Examined
Past legislative and education initiatives will be analyzed; current expansion activities will be assessed; and institutional, state and local policies pertinent to the social mission of medical education will be examined. The study will conclude with a set of findings and recommendations intended to offer perspectives and strategies to new or expanding programs of medical education in support of the social mission of medical schools. A Web site and an electronic community will be developed to disseminate policy briefs, data findings and relevant electronic links. The study will culminate with the publication of articles in the medical literature documenting the findings and recommendations, as well as general audience articles that will seek to communicate this same information to the public as a whole. WHO Assembly Reaches Agreement On Major Public Health Issues Coordination Between Formal Providers And Informal Caregivers Social, economic, and technological changes in the world of health care have shifted more responsibility for medical care into the hands of informal caregivers. These individuals—usually patients' family members or friends—are often asked to play an active role in managing care, performing medical interventions, and dispensing medications, despite the fact that many receive insufficient instruction or support from physicians, nurses, or other formal providers. A Commonwealth Fund–supported study was done involving 222 knee-replacement patients at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. This procedure was chosen, say the researchers, because "although the surgery is rather routine and typically successful, patients undergo a care and recovery process that spans multiple settings," making effective communication and coordination critical. The study may be accessed by clicking Innovations In Public Health: Understanding State Public Health States are responsible for a wide range of public health functions and activities, making it a challenge to describe them in a broad, yet succinct way. Currently, no commonly-accepted shared definition has been developed to describe what public health services an individual should be able to expect from state government. Through the Understanding State Public Health Project , the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) will develop a comprehensive report that defines the scope of state public health functions and responsibilities and will implement a communication and marketing plan that conveys this critical information to public health constituencies, elected officials, funders, and the general public. Additional information may be accessed by clicking http://www.astho.org/pubs/whitepaperfinal.pdf . Graduate Education And American Competitiveness A blue-ribbon panel assembled by the Council of Graduate Schools (CGS) released a report that calls for a renewed commitment to American graduate education, recognizing its critical role in enhancing the nation's economic competitiveness and innovation. The Advisory Committee on Graduate Education and American Competitiveness, comprised of university presidents, corporate leaders and graduate school deans, called for increased collaboration between government, higher education, and the business community to strengthen U.S. competitiveness and national security through increased support for graduate education. The report may be accessed by clicking A new report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) contains mean, median, and annual wages for various occupations, including many kinds of health professionals. National employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment Statistics Survey may be accessed by clicking http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm . World Health Assembly Focuses On Key Health Issues The 60th World Health Assembly focused on key health issues on Thursday in Geneva, Switzerland. Topics under discussion included efforts to control malaria and tuberculosis, as well as an update on public health, innovation and intellectual property. Delegates at the Health Assembly also have been addressing the threat of avian and pandemic influenza and the application of the International Health Regulations. Transcripts of presentation made at the Assembly may be accessed at House-Senate Conferees Reach Agreement On Budget Resolution A House Senate conference agreement on the FY 2008 Budget Resolution assumes $54.965 billion for the health function 550 discretionary category, which is $2.9 billion above FY 07 (+5.5 %) and $3.0 billion above the President's budget (+5.8%). Non-defense discretionary spending is $450 billion excluding supplemental, which is $23 billion above FY 07 and $21 billion above the President's request. The report can be accessed by clicking http://www.rules.house.gov/110/text/110_sconres21cr.pdf Trends In The Supply Of U.S. doctors Leading national and international workforce experts convened May 3–4, 2007 in Washington, D.C. for the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Third Annual Physician Workforce Research Conference. The conference is part of the association's ongoing efforts to monitor, analyze, and advance research on the U.S. physician supply. The conference included a point-counter-point discussion on "Physician Workforce Planning in a Broken Health Care System." The debate focused on whether more doctors are needed because of our nation's changing demographics (e.g., rising numbers of elderly, an increasing U.S. population, large numbers of retiring doctors in the next 15 years) or if changes in the nation's health care system can be made to address the expected shortfall and prevent rising costs, questionable quality of care, and increasing numbers of uninsured Americans. The conference also previewed two upcoming surveys by the AAMC and the American Medical Association of physicians over and under age 50. Preliminary findings indicate that:
Comparative International Performance Of U.S. Health Care Despite having the most costly health system in the world, the United States consistently underperforms on most dimensions of performance, relative to other countries. This report from The commonwealth Fund—an update to two earlier editions—includes data from surveys of patients as well as information from primary care physicians about their medical practices and views of their countries' health systems. Compared with five other nations—Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, the United Kingdom—the U.S. health care system ranks last or next-to-last on five dimensions of a high performance health system: quality, access, efficiency, equity, and healthy lives. The U.S. is the only country in the study without universal health insurance coverage, partly accounting for its poor performance on access, equity, and health outcomes. The inclusion of physician survey data also shows the U.S. lagging in adoption of information technology and use of nurses to improve care coordination for the chronically ill. The report may be accessed by clicking A chart pack also can be accessed by clicking Integrative Medicine Consult Service Established at the NIH Clinical Center The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) has established an Integrative Medicine Consult Service at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Clinical Center. This service will provide physicians, nurses, and other members of the Clinical Center health care team the ability to discuss complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies with knowledgeable medical staff from the consult service and learn how various CAM practices might complement or interact with a patient's care as a research participant at the Clinical Center. CAM is not a new concept at the NIH Clinical Center. The Center's Pain and Palliative Care Service and the Rehabilitation Medicine Department offer acupuncture, Reiki, hypnosis, guided imagery, massage therapy, acupuncture, tai chi, and qi gong training. The Pharmacy Department consults on herbals and herb/drug interactions and has conducted research in these areas. The Integrative Medicine Consult Service will coordinate the resources of these existing services to meet the needs of the Center staff and its patients. In addition to offering clinical consultation regarding CAM therapies, the service will establish a research program embedded in NIH's clinical and translational research structure and provide CAM education for NIH staff, patients, and their families. John D Barnes has been named the next CEO of the American Physical Therapy Association APTA, effective July 16. He will succeed retiring APTA CEO Francis J Mallon, Esq. Barnes comes to APTA from the American Academy of Dermatology Association where he served as deputy executive director in Washington, DC, since 2005. Prior to that, he served as the academy's associate executive director, government affairs & health policy, since 1999. New Web Resource for Accessing Information On Genetic Diseases The National Library of Medicine's (NLM) National Center for Biotechnology Information has collaborated with the Genetic Alliance to launch a new Web site feature designed to help patients, care givers, health professionals, and others easily locate and navigate the vast array of information on genetic disorders that is available from the NLM. The "portal" into NLM resources brings together on one Web page links to a wide range of information for patients and caregivers-from basic descriptions of a disease and its symptoms to the most current scientific research. It is designed to serve the needs of a broad spectrum of users, ranging from those who are just beginning to learn about a disorder to those who understand complex scientific information, including those who want to track emerging information over time. The site may be reached by clicking http://www.geneticalliance.org/ Enrollment In Postsecondary Education Institutions, Graduate Rates, And Financial Statistics This First Look presents findings from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) spring 2006 data collection, which included four components: Student Financial Aid for full-time, first-time, degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students for the 2004-05 academic year; Enrollment for fall 2005 and 12-month counts for 2004-05; Graduation Rates for full-time, first-time degree/certificate-seeking undergraduate students beginning college in 1999 at 4-year institutions or in 2002 at less-than-4-year institutions; and Finance for fiscal year 2005. These data were collected through the IPEDS web-based data collection system. The report may be accessed by clicking http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2007/2007154.pdf . Meeting The Long-Term Care Needs Of Baby Boomers Population aging, especially when the baby boomers reach ages 85 and older, signals a likely surge in the use of long-term care services. It is a leading cause of catastrophic out-of-pocket costs for families and involves substantial government spending, primarily through Medicaid and Medicare. Few individuals have insurance coverage against the high costs of long-term care. After impoverishing themselves, they must turn to Medicaid, a means-tested welfare program, to pay for their long-tem care services. The quality of long-term care is often problematic and a growing shortage of long-term care workers will likely further threaten service delivery. Social and demographic changes create additional challenges. Much of the care received by frail elders is provided informally by the family and adult daughters often assume primary responsibility for their parents' care. The availability of family caregivers may fall over time because of rising divorce rates, increasing childlessness, and declining family sizes. The rising labor force participation of women also may reduce their ability to provide informal care and it is unclear whether men will fill the gap. For additional information, a new report from The Urban Institute may be accessed by clicking http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311451_Meeting_Care.pdf . WHO Online Tool To Improve Clinical Trial Transparency The World Health Organization (WHO) recently launched a new web site that will enable researchers, health practitioners, consumers, journal editors, and reporters to search more easily and quickly for information on clinical trials. The site works as an entry point or portal into multiple, high quality clinical trial registers with a global search function. For a doctor or a patient, identifying all clinical trials relevant to a decision to receive a specific treatment option is a difficult task, made easier if the results have been reported in the published literature. However, a significant proportion of research is never published and, even if it is published, it is possible that only part of the story is told in the publication. Relying on information provided only by published trial research is therefore unreliable and leads to inadequately informed treatment decisions. The only way to ensure the availability of complete and accurate information about clinical trials is for all trials to be registered before any participants are recruited. WHO believes that the registration of clinical trials is a scientific, ethical and moral responsibility. The portal may be accessed by clicking http://www.who.int/trialsearch . Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Prevalence Data The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Behavioral Surveillance Branch in the Division of Adult and Community Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Coordinating Center for Health Promotion announced the release of the 2006 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) prevalence data this week. The BRFSS is a state-based surveillance system active in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam. Information on health risk behaviors, clinical preventive health practices and health care access, primarily related to chronic disease and injury, is obtained from a representative sample of non-institutionalized adults, 18 years and older, in each state. The BRFSS provides flexible, timely and ongoing data collection that allows for state-to-state and state-to-nation comparisons. State-specific data, including racial-and-ethnic-specific data from the BRFSS, provide a sound basis for developing and evaluating public health programs. The BRFSS is the largest telephone-based surveillance system in the world, with more than 355,000 interviews in 2006. The 2006 BRFSS state-by-state prevalence data can be accessed by clicking http://www.cdc.gov/brfss . How Healthy Younger Adults Make Use Of Genetic Tests The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), parts of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), have teamed with Group Health Cooperative in Seattle and Henry Ford Health System in Detroit to launch a study to investigate the interest level of healthy, young adults in receiving genetic testing for eight common conditions. Called the Multiplex Initiative, the study also will look at how individuals who decide to take the tests will interpret and use the results in making their own health care decisions in the future. The test being used is designed to yield information about 15 different genes that play roles in type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and malignant melanoma. One of the important aspects of this study is the evaluation of participants' responses to the offer of free genetic testing in order to learn more about who is and is not interested in such tests, what influences decisions about whether to be tested, and how individuals who are tested interact with the health care system. The Future Of Disability In America To understand disability in the United States better, the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Education, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assess the current situation and provide recommendations for improvement, which culminated in the report The Future of Disability in America . The committee reviewed the developments since two previous IOM reports on disability, analyzed a number of shortcomings in the nation's disability policies and programs, and raised serious questions about how individuals and society will cope with the challenges of disability. This report concludes that immediate action is essential for the nation to avoid harm and to help individuals with disabilities lead independent and productive lives. For additional information, click http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11898 . Trends In Health Status And Health Care Use Among Older Woman The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a report entitled, "Trends in Health Status and Health Care Use Among Older Woman." The report may be accessed by clicking Congressional Inquiry Of Drug Company Grants For Continuing Medical Education Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Ranking Member Charles Grassley have released the results of a committee inquiry into drug company grants to fund continuing education for physicians and other health care workers. According to the recent report by committee staff, drug companies report they have taken steps to separate the grant making process from their marketing efforts. In addition, various industry groups and government agencies have created guidelines for educational grants to reduce the potential for abuse. However, drug companies are not required to follow the guidelines and “a significant gray area continues to exist regarding the use of educational grants to serve marketing purposes,” the report adds. The report may be accessed by clicking Patient-Reported Safety And Quality of Care Consumer surveys indicate that between 12 percent and 42 percent of U.S. adults report that they or a loved one has experienced a medical injury. Little is known, however, about patients' ability to recognize such events or understand the definition of clinical terms like "medical error" or "adverse event." In the Commonwealth Fund–supported study, "Patient-Reported Safety and Quality of Care in Outpatient Oncology," ( Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety; 33:2, 2007), researchers sought to determine the extent to which patients can recognize medical errors.Although one of five patients reported an unsafe experience, the researchers determined that only 31 percent of these patients actually identified a close call, medical error, or injury. Most reports, they found, could be categorized as service quality problems: long waits, miscommunication with clinicians, or dissatisfaction with the environment and amenities. A summary of the study may be obtained by clicking Center For Health Policy Simulation The goal of the RAND Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation is to develop better models to understand the consequences of biomedical developments and social forces for health, health spending, and health care delivery. The Center is one of ten established by the National Institute on Aging to move promising social and behavioral research findings out of the laboratory and into programs, practices, and policies that will improve the lives of older people and the capacity of society to adapt to societal aging. The RAND Roybal Center for Health Policy Simulation has several specific aims: (1) Create a Center that researches new methods for forecasting disease, functional status, and health expenditures of older populations, and that develops decision-making tools based on these methods; (2) Assess how new and existing medical interventions affect the health, functional status, and spending of older cohorts, and their implications for Medicare and Medicaid and society-at-large; and (3) Assess how demographic and public health trends-including obesity, diabetes, and smoking-affect future outcomes for the elderly and society-at-large. For more information, click http://www.rand.org/labor/roybalhp/ . Key Reports On Genomics Released The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Secretary's Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health and Society released two reports to help guide genomic research and its application to public health. The first document, "Policy Issues Associated with Undertaking a New Large U.S. Population Cohort Study of Genes, Environment, and Disease," provides information that would help the HHS Secretary make a decision whether to pursue large population studies on gene-environment or gene-health interactions. The report, which is final, reflects comments from industry, patient advocacy, and academic organizations. The report may be accessed by clicking The second document, entitled "Realizing the Promise of Pharmacogenomics: Opportunities and Challenges," is in draft form. Its purpose is to assess the potential for genomics to improve productivity of the drug development pipeline, increase the safety and effectiveness of drugs by reducing adverse reactions, and allow for more efficient use of drugs in clinical and public health practice. The draft report may be accessed by clicking As individuals age, their physical, visual, and cognitive abilities may decline, making it more difficult for them to drive safely. Older drivers are also more likely to suffer injuries or die in crashes than drivers in other age groups. These safety issues will increase in significance because older adults represent the fastest-growing U.S. population segment. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined (1) what the federal government has done to promote practices to make roads safer for older drivers and the extent to which states have implemented those practices, (2) the extent to which states assess the fitness of older drivers and what support the federal government has provided, and (3) what initiatives selected states have implemented to improve the safety of older drivers. To conduct this study, GAO surveyed 51 state departments of transportation (DOT), visited six states, and interviewed federal transportation officials. The report may be accessed by clicking http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07413.pdf The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) assessed the English literacy skills of a nationally representative sample of more than 19,000 U.S. adults (age 16 and older) residing in households and prisons. NAAL is the first national assessment of adult literacy since the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey. Three types of literacy were measured: Prose, Document, and Quantitative. Results were reported in scale scores (on a 500-point scale) and in four literacy levels—Below Basic, Basic, Intermediate, and Proficient. This report, Literacy in Everyday Life , presents findings from the 2003 assessment. It examines changes in literacy levels for the total adult population of the United States, as well as for adults with different demographic characteristics (gender, race, age, and ethnicity). Changes in literacy levels are reported for 2003 as well as between 1992 and 2003. In addition, the report describes how American adults age 16 and older at varying literacy levels use written information in their everyday lives. Specifically, this report describes the relationship between literacy and a number of self-reported background characteristics including education, employment, earnings, job training, family literacy practices, civics activities, and computer usage. The report may be accessed by clicking http://nces.ed.gov/Pubs2007/2007480.pdf . Obesity Rate Increasd By 50% In Five-Year Period The proportion of Americans who are severely obese — about 100 pounds or more overweight — increased by 50 percent from 2000 to 2005, twice as fast as the growth seen in moderate obesity, according to a RAND Corporation study issued this week. To be classified as severely obese, a person must have a body mass index (a ratio of weight to height) of 40 or higher — roughly 100 pounds or more overweight for an average adult man. The typical severely obese man weighs 300 pounds at a height of 5 feet 10 inches tall, while the typical severely obese woman weighs 250 pounds at a height of 5 feet 4 inches. Individuals with a BMI of 25 to 29 are considered overweight, while a BMI of 30 or more classifies a person as being obese. For a 5-foot-10 inch male, a BMI of 30 translates into being 35 pounds overweight. The study found that based on self-reported height and weight, which tends to understate actual BMI, three percent of Americans are already severely obese. Since that is the fastest growing group of obese Americans, widely published trends for obesity underestimate the consequences of the obesity epidemic because illness and service use are much higher among severely obese individuals. The document may be accessed by clicking Language Proficiency And Adverse Events In U.S. Hospitals When patients have trouble communicating with their doctors, the consequences can be grave: mistrust, dissatisfaction with care, even medical errors. When patients have limited English proficiency (LEP), communication problems can be even more serious. Despite the rising number of LEP individuals in the United States—from 6 percent of the population in 1990 to 8 percent in 2000—little is known about the impact of language barriers on patient safety. In "Language Proficiency and Adverse Events in U.S. Hospitals: A Pilot Study" ( International Journal for Quality in Health Care, April 2007), Commonwealth Fund–supported researchers from the Joint Commission report on the type and frequency of adverse events experienced by LEP and English-speaking patients in six U.S. hospitals. The report may be accessed by clicking The Learning Healthcare System: Workshop Summary Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity & Medical Care This update of Key Facts: Race, Ethnicity, and Medical Care from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation is intended to serve as a quick reference source on the health, health insurance coverage, access, and quality of health care of racial and ethnic groups in the United States. The document highlights some of the best available data and research in these areas. This version of Key Facts, where possible, highlights datathat show whether health care disparities are narrowing, widening, or persisting for specific racial/ethnic groups and presents newly collected data for individuals who identify with more than one racial group. The document may be accessed by clicking http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/upload/6069-02.pdf . Tools And Systems for Health Promotion And Disease Prevention The 6th Annual Johns Hopkins/Healthways Disease Management Outcomes Summit brought together more than 200 practicing physicians, physician executives, thought leaders and subject matter experts from across the country with the goal of defining tools and systems to promote health and prevent disease. The result—outlined in a report—is a guide to the barriers and the solutions to realizing the potential and the promise of prevention as a means of improving health and reducing costs. Achieving both the potential and the promise requires large-scale, long-term changes to the health system. Summit participants have put forth the elements of a national preventive health system, providing a solid steppingstone for future work toward such a goal. The report may be accessed by clicking Patient Safety In American Hospitals Patient safety incidents at the nation's hospitals rose to three percent over the years 2003 to 2005, but the nation's top-performing hospitals had a 40 percent lower rate of medical errors when compared with the poorest-performing hospitals, according to the largest annual study of patient-safety issued today by HealthGrades, the leading independent healthcare ratings company. The HealthGrades study of 40.56 million Medicare hospitalization records over the years 2003 to 2005 also found: • Patient-safety incidents continue to rise in American hospitals, with 1.16 million preventable patient-safety incidents occurring over the three years studied among Medicare patients in the nation's hospitals, an incidence rate of 2.86 percent. • 247,662 deaths were potentially preventable over the three years, and Medicare patients who had one or more patient-safety incidents had a one-in-four chance of dying. • The excess cost to hospitals was $8.6 billion over three years, with some of the most common incidents proving to be the most costly. The report may be accessed by clicking Hospital Performance Improvement: Trends In Quality And Efficiency A new report from The Commonwealth Fund presents results of a quantitative examination of the dynamics of hospital performance: the degree to which hospitals are improving (or deteriorating) in quality and efficiency over time. Results indicate significant improvements across hospitals in reducing mortality and increasing efficiency over 2001–2005, with mixed results in complication and morbidity rates. Reduced mortality is likely due to improvements in care, such as better diagnostic techniques and earlier interventions, as well as more conscientious record "coding" and changing discharge practices. Consistent reductions in length of stay underscore the financial pressures on hospitals, perhaps combined with improved ability to stabilize, treat, and discharge patients. The characteristics of the most-improving hospitals indicate that quality improvement is immanently attainable, occurring at least as much among small, non-teaching institutions as among their larger, more prominent counterparts. The report may be accessed by clicking Employees In Postsecondary Institutions And Salaries Of Full-Time Instructional Faculty
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