American Journal of Medical Quality This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Identifying Meaningful Outcome Measures for the Intensive Care Unit
This study reports on a consensus process to build 5 outcome measures for broad use to evaluate the quality of ICU care and inform quality improvement efforts. (Source: American Journal of Medical Quality)
Source: American Journal of Medical Quality - March 3, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Martinez, E. A., Donelan, K., Henneman, J. P., Berenholtz, S. M., Miralles, P. D., Krug, A. E., Iezzoni, L. I., Charnin, J. E., Pronovost, P. J. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Emergency Department Utilization as a Measure of Physician Performance
Visits to the emergency department (ED) are costly, and because some of them are potentially avoidable, some types of ED visits also may be indicative of poor care management, inadequate access to care, or poor choices on the part of beneficiaries. Billings and colleagues developed an algorithm to analyze ED visits and assign probabilities that each visit falls into several categories of appropriateness. The algorithm has been used previously to assess the appropriateness of ED visits at the community or facility level. In this analysis, the authors explain how the Billings algorithm works and how it can be applied to indi...
Source: American Journal of Medical Quality - March 3, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Dowd, B., Karmarker, M., Swenson, T., Parashuram, S., Kane, R., Coulam, R., Jeffery, M. M. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Evaluation of Quality Improvement Performance in the Community Diabetes Education (CoDE) Program for Uninsured Mexican Americans: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial
The objective of this article is to quantify quality improvement using data from a randomized controlled trial that tested the effectiveness of a community health worker in the primary role of diabetes educator in a clinic serving uninsured Mexican Americans. The intervention group received 7 hours of diabetes education/case management in excess of usual medical care. Of 16 process and outcome measures evaluated, the intervention group was significantly more likely to have received a dilated retinal examination, and 53% achieved a hemoglobin A1c below 7% compared with 38% of the control group participants. Composite qualit...
Source: American Journal of Medical Quality - March 3, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Prezio, E. A., Balasubramanian, B. A., Shuval, K., Cheng, D., Kendzor, D. E., Culica, D. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

A Simulation-Based Training Program Improves Emergency Department Staff Communication
The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effectiveness of Project CLEAR!, a novel simulation-based training program designed to instill Crew Resource Management (CRM) as the communication standard and to create a service-focused environment in the emergency department (ED) by standardizing the patient encounter. A survey-based study compared physicians’ and nurses’ perceptions of the quality of communication before and after the training program. Surveys were developed to measure ED staff perceptions of the quality of communication between staff members and with patients. Pretraining and posttraining s...
Source: American Journal of Medical Quality - March 3, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Sweeney, L. A., Warren, O., Gardner, L., Rojek, A., Lindquist, D. G. Tags: Articles Source Type: research

Measuring Cardiac Waste: The Premier Cardiac Waste Measures
The authors developed 8 measures of waste associated with cardiac procedures to assist hospitals in comparing their performance with peer facilities. Measure selection was based on review of the research literature, clinical guidelines, and consultation with key stakeholders. Development and validation used the data from 261 hospitals in a split-sample design. Measures were risk adjusted using Premier’s CareScience methodologies or mean peer value based on Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Group assignment. High variability was found in resource utilization across facilities. Validation of the measures using item-t...
Source: American Journal of Medical Quality - March 3, 2014 Category: Health Management Authors: Lowe, T. J., Partovian, C., Kroch, E., Martin, J., Bankowitz, R. Tags: Articles Source Type: research