This dissertation proposal seeks to understand if the increasingnumbers (density) of recognized PCMH practices incommunities affect avoidable hospitalizations related toambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC), as measured bythe AHRQ Composite Prevention Quality Indicators (PQI). Theresearch has two purposes: 1. Establish constructs and hypotheses to measurethe effect of the increasing numbers of NCQA-Recognized PCMH practices in communities(counties). 2. Using an outcomes-based measurement approach,investigate the relationship between growingdensities of NCQA-Recognized PCMH practicedoctors among all primary care doctors (PCD) ina community and the associated impact on theutilization of inpatient care, specifically related toACSCs, as measured by the AHRQ CompositePQIs. The research is quasi-experimental in design and is based on aretrospective (2008–2011) analysis of existing data from theNCQA PCMH program, the AHRQ Composite PQI and theCenters for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) NationalProvider Identification (NPI) databases. Analysis will linkNCQA-Recognized PCMH practices (independent variable),AHRQ Risk Adjusted Composite PQIs (dependent variable),and the CMS NPI (total PCDs) on Federal InformationProcessing Standard (FIPS) identifiers across 114 state andcounty-level geographical areas in Vermont and North Carolina.

Class of 2013 Abstract / Specific Aims: To evaluate and describe the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) affiliated practice-based research network (PBRN) websites to determine the best qualities regarding format, content, and accessibility using a developed PBRN website information extraction form. Methods: A PBRN information extraction form was developed to assess the format, content, and accessibility of each AHRQ-affiliated PBRN website. Each student investigator completed an electronic copy of the extraction form for each PBRN website to confirm consistency of findings. A phone interview was then conducted with the webmasters of the PBRNs with the highest scores to determine the influences and challenges those webmasters faced during the development of their PBRN websites. Main Results: The information extraction form was completed for each of the 104 active PBRN websites in the U.S. The most common elements seen on the PBRN websites were site map, email address, mission statement, phone number, and search toolbar. The inter-rater agreement between the two student investigators for the data collected was 84 percent. Regarding the webmaster interviews, the majority of the webmasters believed that the single most important factor in creating a successful PBRN website was identifying the audience of the PBRN and making the material appropriate for that audience. Conclusion: The developed information extraction form was used to successfully evaluate and describe the AHRQ-affiliated PBRN websites. Audience identification is important in order to provide appropriate content, as well as in the development of an effective PBRN website.

Indicadores de qualidade hospitalar correspondem a medidas que contém informações relevantes sobre determinados atributos e dimensões que caracterizam a qualidade de diferentes instituições de saúde. Tais medidas são capazes de sinalizar eventuais deficiências ou práticas de sucesso associadas à qualidade dos serviços de saúde. O presente estudo teve por finalidade desenvolver uma ferramenta computacional de análise, voltada para o gerenciamento hospitalar, com o objetivo de se obter um instrumento que possa ser utilizado para monitorar e avaliar a qualidade dos serviços oferecidos por instituições hospitalares através da análise e gerenciamento de indicadores de qualidade hospitalar. Os indicadores alvo para avaliar a qualidade dos serviços representaram um subconjunto de indicadores de qualidade denominados Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) da Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). A partir da revisão bibliográfica de textos científicos na área e com base nas dimensões de processo e resultado do Modelo Donabediano, foram selecionados vinte e dois indicadores da AHRQ, que avaliam a mortalidade por determinadas afecções e procedimentos cirúrgicos, bem como a quantidade e a qualidade dos procedimentos realizados nas instituições de saúde. A ferramenta foi construída em dois módulos: um módulo responsável pela geração dos indicadores a partir de dados coletados de um banco de dados relacional; e outro destinado ao estudo e análise das séries temporais dos indicadores, permitindo o acompanhamento da evolução dos mesmos de forma histórica. Os dados utilizados para a geração dos indicadores são oriundos da base de dados do Observatório Regional de Atenção Hospitalar (ORAH), que consiste numa entidade responsável pelo processamento de dados de internação de quarenta hospitais públicos e privados, distribuídos ao longo de vinte e seis municípios da região de Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil, que compõem a Departamento Regional de Saúde XIII (DRS-XIII). A ferramenta computacional foi concluída e validade com êxito e suas funcionalidades foram disponibilizadas para gestores de saúde e acadêmicos através do portal web de conteúdo vinculado ao ORAH. Em adição, os resultados obtidos através do uso da ferramenta foram utilizados para analisar a situação da assistência hospitalar na região de Ribeirão Preto através da comparação histórica dos indicadores entre as três microrregiões de saúde que compõem a DRS-XIII: Aquífero Guarani, Vale das Cachoeiras e Horizonte Verde. A análise destes resultados também foi essencial para verificar a capacidade da ferramenta em prover informações relevantes para a gestão hospitalar. A partir da análise dos resultados obtidos, concluímos que a ferramenta permite a definição de um panorama geral da assistência hospitalar na região de Ribeirão Preto. De acordo com os achados deste estudo, também verificamos que os indicadores de qualidade hospitalar da AHRQ cumpriram seu papel como medidas sentinela e foram capazes de identificar certos aspectos associados à realidade. Entretanto, a análise dos resultados também remeteu à necessidade de introduzir novas variáveis que permitam conhecer o real estado dos pacientes e as condições estruturais das diferentes instituições de saúde, visto que os indicadores selecionados, por si só, não fornecem aos gestores de saúde uma avaliação final da qualidade das instituições hospitalares. / Inpatient quality indicators are measures that provide relevant inforrnation on the level of quality of care delivered by hospitals and healthcare services. These measures are capable of signaling eventual problems or successful practices associated with the quality of care provided by health services. This project was aimed to create an instrument to assess the quality of care delivered by hospitals by developing a web application whose functionalities focused on monitoring a subset of inpatient quality indicators (IQIs), extracted from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Based on literature review and on the components of process and outcomes defined by the Donabedian model, there were selected twenty-two AHRQ\'s inpatient quality indicators that are commonly used to evaluate the mortality associated with certain conditions and procedures, as well as the quantity and quality of certain medical procedures. The software is composed by two components: one is responsible for calculating the indicators using admission data extracted from an operational database; the other one is meant for the study and analysis of time series of the indicators, which allows the monitoring of its values over the years. The indicators were ca1culated using administrative data from the Observatory for Hospital Care\'s database (ORAH, from the acronyrn in Portuguese \"Observatório Regional de Atenção Hospitalar\"). The Observatory for Hospital Care is responsible for processing admission data collected from forty hospitals located throughout Ribeirao Preto region, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. The management of hospitals located in the Ribeirao Preto region is conducted by the Regional Department of Health XIII (DRS-XIII, from the acronyrn in Portuguese \"Departamento Regional de Saúde XIII). The web application\'s services were made available to health service administrators and academic personnel through the ORAH\'s website. The results provided by this computational tool were also used to analyze the situation of care delivered by the hospitals in Ribeirao Preto region, which is subdivided into three microregions: Aquifero Guarani, Horizonte Verde e Vale das Cachoeiras. The historic values of the indicators were compared between these three microregions. The analysis of these results was also important to verify whether the web application is actually able to provi de enough inforrnation to acknowledge the reality of the hospitals in Ribeirao Preto region. According to the results, we verified that the AHRQ\'s inpatient quality indicators have fulfilled their role in signalizing certain aspects related to the quality of care of the hospitals, but they do not provi de enough inforrnation to establish a defini tive quality assessment of hospital services. Therefore, we verified the need of introducing new attributes in order to understand and acknowledge the clinical condition of the hospitalized patients, as well as the structure and resources available in the hospitals.

Indicadores de qualidade hospitalar correspondem a medidas que contém informações relevantes sobre determinados atributos e dimensões que caracterizam a qualidade de diferentes instituições de saúde. Tais medidas são capazes de sinalizar eventuais deficiências ou práticas de sucesso associadas à qualidade dos serviços de saúde. O presente estudo teve por finalidade desenvolver uma ferramenta computacional de análise, voltada para o gerenciamento hospitalar, com o objetivo de se obter um instrumento que possa ser utilizado para monitorar e avaliar a qualidade dos serviços oferecidos por instituições hospitalares através da análise e gerenciamento de indicadores de qualidade hospitalar. Os indicadores alvo para avaliar a qualidade dos serviços representaram um subconjunto de indicadores de qualidade denominados Inpatient Quality Indicators (IQIs) da Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). A partir da revisão bibliográfica de textos científicos na área e com base nas dimensões de processo e resultado do Modelo Donabediano, foram selecionados vinte e dois indicadores da AHRQ, que avaliam a mortalidade por determinadas afecções e procedimentos cirúrgicos, bem como a quantidade e a qualidade dos procedimentos realizados nas instituições de saúde. A ferramenta foi construída em dois módulos: um módulo responsável pela geração dos indicadores a partir de dados coletados de um banco de dados relacional; e outro destinado ao estudo e análise das séries temporais dos indicadores, permitindo o acompanhamento da evolução dos mesmos de forma histórica. Os dados utilizados para a geração dos indicadores são oriundos da base de dados do Observatório Regional de Atenção Hospitalar (ORAH), que consiste numa entidade responsável pelo processamento de dados de internação de quarenta hospitais públicos e privados, distribuídos ao longo de vinte e seis municípios da região de Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brasil, que compõem a Departamento Regional de Saúde XIII (DRS-XIII). A ferramenta computacional foi concluída e validade com êxito e suas funcionalidades foram disponibilizadas para gestores de saúde e acadêmicos através do portal web de conteúdo vinculado ao ORAH. Em adição, os resultados obtidos através do uso da ferramenta foram utilizados para analisar a situação da assistência hospitalar na região de Ribeirão Preto através da comparação histórica dos indicadores entre as três microrregiões de saúde que compõem a DRS-XIII: Aquífero Guarani, Vale das Cachoeiras e Horizonte Verde. A análise destes resultados também foi essencial para verificar a capacidade da ferramenta em prover informações relevantes para a gestão hospitalar. A partir da análise dos resultados obtidos, concluímos que a ferramenta permite a definição de um panorama geral da assistência hospitalar na região de Ribeirão Preto. De acordo com os achados deste estudo, também verificamos que os indicadores de qualidade hospitalar da AHRQ cumpriram seu papel como medidas sentinela e foram capazes de identificar certos aspectos associados à realidade. Entretanto, a análise dos resultados também remeteu à necessidade de introduzir novas variáveis que permitam conhecer o real estado dos pacientes e as condições estruturais das diferentes instituições de saúde, visto que os indicadores selecionados, por si só, não fornecem aos gestores de saúde uma avaliação final da qualidade das instituições hospitalares. / Inpatient quality indicators are measures that provide relevant inforrnation on the level of quality of care delivered by hospitals and healthcare services. These measures are capable of signaling eventual problems or successful practices associated with the quality of care provided by health services. This project was aimed to create an instrument to assess the quality of care delivered by hospitals by developing a web application whose functionalities focused on monitoring a subset of inpatient quality indicators (IQIs), extracted from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). Based on literature review and on the components of process and outcomes defined by the Donabedian model, there were selected twenty-two AHRQ\'s inpatient quality indicators that are commonly used to evaluate the mortality associated with certain conditions and procedures, as well as the quantity and quality of certain medical procedures. The software is composed by two components: one is responsible for calculating the indicators using admission data extracted from an operational database; the other one is meant for the study and analysis of time series of the indicators, which allows the monitoring of its values over the years. The indicators were ca1culated using administrative data from the Observatory for Hospital Care\'s database (ORAH, from the acronyrn in Portuguese \"Observatório Regional de Atenção Hospitalar\"). The Observatory for Hospital Care is responsible for processing admission data collected from forty hospitals located throughout Ribeirao Preto region, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo. The management of hospitals located in the Ribeirao Preto region is conducted by the Regional Department of Health XIII (DRS-XIII, from the acronyrn in Portuguese \"Departamento Regional de Saúde XIII). The web application\'s services were made available to health service administrators and academic personnel through the ORAH\'s website. The results provided by this computational tool were also used to analyze the situation of care delivered by the hospitals in Ribeirao Preto region, which is subdivided into three microregions: Aquifero Guarani, Horizonte Verde e Vale das Cachoeiras. The historic values of the indicators were compared between these three microregions. The analysis of these results was also important to verify whether the web application is actually able to provi de enough inforrnation to acknowledge the reality of the hospitals in Ribeirao Preto region. According to the results, we verified that the AHRQ\'s inpatient quality indicators have fulfilled their role in signalizing certain aspects related to the quality of care of the hospitals, but they do not provi de enough inforrnation to establish a defini tive quality assessment of hospital services. Therefore, we verified the need of introducing new attributes in order to understand and acknowledge the clinical condition of the hospitalized patients, as well as the structure and resources available in the hospitals.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: This study was aimed to evaluate inpatient clinical treatment characteristics associated with the use of intracranial implantation of chemotherapeutic wafers for malignant brain neoplasms within United States, and assess inpatient mortality and total charges regarding treatment with wafer versus without. Methods: A retrospective cohort investigation was conducted utilizing inpatient discharge records from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample from 2005 to 2009. From this nationally-representative sample, 9,455 adults aged 18 years or older were identified with malignant neoplasms of the brain treated with implantable chemotherapeutic wafers. Outcomes of inpatient mortality and charges were assessed via multivariate regression analysis, controlling for patient characteristics, hospital structure, comorbidities, and clinical complications. Main Results: The average age of patients with brain neoplasms was 56.6 (±16.5) years, and of those patients, 42.9% were female. The odds ratio for inpatient mortality of patients treated with implantable chemotherapeutic wafers was OR=0.380 (P<0.001), and patients that received wafer treatment had increased charges exp(b)=2.147 (P<0.001). Conclusions: Multiple factors were associated with inpatient mortality and charges among the 247,829 patients that were diagnosed with malignant brain neoplasms from 2005-2009. With regards to these patients, implantable chemotherapeutic wafers were associated with increased inpatient survival and increased charges.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: To evaluate disease- and patient-related characteristics, mortality, and charges associated with non-AIDS defining malignancies (NADM) among inpatient settings in the United States from 2005 to 2009. Methods: This retrospective cohort investigation utilized nationally-representative hospital discharge records from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample. Inclusion criteria included adult inpatients ≥18 years with a diagnosis of HIV or AIDS and malignant neoplasms. Multivariate regression analyses were used to assess inpatient mortality and charges. Main Results: Overall, 104,488 were included. Average age associated with each case was 46.9 years (±10.66), with 21.9% cases being female (n=22,868). The mean length of stay was 8.6 days (±10.5) and inpatient mortality occurred in 7.7% of cases (n=8,035). The mean number of procedures performed was 2.3 (±2.5) and the mean number of diagnoses on record was 9.5 (±4.4). Charges for each episode of care averaged $59,483 (±85,748), summing to a national bill of $6.14 billion (2011 dollars) over the five-year course. A higher number of cases were associated with teaching hospitals (74.1%), the south (42%), large metropolitan areas (75.1%), median household income in the 0-25th percentile (41.2%), and Medicaid payers (34.3%). Increased mortality was associated with increased age, increased number of diagnoses and procedures, and the comorbidities of anemia, coagulopathy, lymphoma, and fluid and electrolyte disorders. Conclusions: This investigation of NADMs suggest a considerable clinical and economic burden of illness, summing to a 7.7% inpatient death rate and $1.3 billion in charges per year.

Class of 2011 Abstract / OBJECTIVES: To assess the role of patient, payer, clinical and disease-related factors in charges and mortality among adult inpatient cases of polycythemia vera in the United States from 2004 to 2008. METHODS: This retrospective cohort study utilized hospital discharge records from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) five consecutive years from 2004 to 2008. RESULTS: There were a total of 156,490 episodes of care involving polycythemia vera between 2004 and 2008. Average age upon admission was 65.94 years (±16.03), with 56% of cases being male (n=87,662). The mean length of stay was 5.14 days (±5.31) and inpatient mortality occurred in 3.1% of cases (n=4,927). The mean number of procedures performed was 1.43 (±2.08) and the mean number of diagnoses on record was 9.56 (±3.86). Charges for each episode of care averaged $32,620 (±42,801), summing to a national bill of $5.02 billion (2010 dollars) over the five-year time horizon. Higher charges were associated with longer length of stay, larger hospital bed size, urban hospital location, teaching status, increased number of diagnoses and procedures, private payer, Western U.S. region, and higher income bracket. Increased mortality was associated with increased age, increased number of diagnoses and procedures, self pay, payer other than Medicare, Medicaid, private or self, and the comorbidities of congestive heart failure, coagulopathy, and fluid/electrolyte disorders. CONCLUSION: Polycythemia vera is associated with considerable burden of illness.

No description available.