Improving Communication with Family Members during a Global Pandemic: Effect on Patient Experience.

OBJECTIVES: Communication with patients and their families/caregivers to facilitate informed decision making is an integral part of patient/family-centered care. Due to the high coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection rates and limited personal protective equipment, healthcare systems were forced to restrict patient visitors, limit patient-provider interactions, and implement other changes in treatment protocols that disturbed traditional communications and risked eroding patient/family-centered care and adversely affected patient satisfaction. This article focuses on changes in patient experience in two dedicated COVID-19 units of an academic medical center located in the US South as a result of the enhanced communication process implemented specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: This retrospective quality improvement project used data from Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) surveys, fielded between January 1, 2021 and August 31, 2021, to understand the role of a proactive communication initiative in patient satisfaction. RESULTS: Our results show that HCAHPS scores for hospital unit hospital unit 4 (HSP4) in all categories increased over time, with the greatest improvements seen in the responsiveness of staff and care transition; however, HCAHPS scores for hospital unit HSP3 remained stable, with a small increase in responsiveness of staff. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that communication is a critical factor in patient satisfaction, demonstrating the efficacy of a swift and innovative initiative to improve communication with family/caregivers, which may have been linked to better patient experiences. Developing communication strategies is crucial for enhancing patient satisfaction.

Workforce Engagement for Compassionate Advocacy, Resilience, and Empowerment (WE CARE): An Evidence-Based Wellness Program.

Poor well-being and burnout among the nursing workforce were heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this study was to deliver, spread, and sustain an evidence-based wellness program, Workforce Engagement for Compassionate Advocacy, Resilience, and Empowerment (WE CARE), for nurse leaders, staff registered nurses (RNs), and patient care technicians (PCTs) to ameliorate or prevent burnout, promote resilience, and improve the work environment. The program included Community Resiliency Model (CRM) training provided by a certified 6-member wellness team. A baseline and 6-month follow-up survey included measures of well-being, moral distress, burnout, resilience, perceived organizational support (POS), job satisfaction, intent to leave (ITL), and work environment. A total of 4900 inpatient RNs, PCTs, and leaders of a 1207-bed academic medical center in the southeastern United States were analyzed. From baseline (n = 1533) to 6-month follow-up (n = 1457), well-being, moral distress, burnout, job satisfaction, and work environment improved; however, resilience, POS, and ITL did not. Although we have seen some improvements in well-being and mental health indicators, it is still early in the intervention period to have reached a critical mass with the training and other interventions. The mental health and work environment issues among nurses are so complex, no one-size-fits-all intervention can resolve.

Evaluation of an Advanced Practice Provider Onboarding and Development Program.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of implementing a comprehensive secondary onboarding and development program within a hospital medicine group at a large tertiary academic medical institution. METHODS: This was a mixed-methods study with physician and advanced practice providers (APPs) at an academic medical institution. RESULTS: For quantitative methods, improvement in competencies was determined using a pre-and posttest for APPs and pre- and postevaluation scores from collaborating physicians. APPs also participated in a pre- and post-self-assessment. For qualitative methods, experiences in the secondary onbo.arding and development program were assessed using semistructured interviews. CONCLUSIONS: For quantitative results, there were a total of 25 APPs who completed the pre- and posttest and were evaluated by at least 9 physicians. The average pretest score for APPs was 71.7% and the average posttest score was 83.0%. The average score for physicians' evaluations of APPs was 4.24/5 and increased to 4.38/5 in the postprogram evaluations. The average score for APP self-assessment pretraining was 3.52/5 and after the 12-month onboarding training, average scores increased to 3.84/5. For qualitative results, 4 APPs and 6 physicians were interviewed. Three of the APPs reported having more confidence in treating patients, whereas 1 APP viewed the program as a refresher course. All of the APPs mentioned that they would recommend the program to other APPs. Physicians reported that the program was beneficial in standardizing the care provided among the different types of APPs (physician assistants and nurse practitioners). All of the physicians also would recommend the program to other physicians and APPs.

Mapping 2 Decades of Research in Health Services Research, Health Policy, and Health Economics Journals.

OBJECTIVE: To identify major research topics and exhibit trends in these topics in 15 health services research, health policy, and health economics journals over 2 decades. DATA SOURCES: The study sample of 35,159 abstracts (1999-2020) were collected from PubMed for 15 journals. STUDY DESIGN: The study used a 3-phase approach for text analyses: (1) developing the corpus of 40,618 references from PubMed (excluding 5459 of those without abstract or author information); (2) preprocessing and generating the term list using natural language processing to eliminate irrelevant textual data and identify important terms and phrases; (3) analyzing the preprocessed text data using latent semantic analysis, topic analyses, and multiple correspondence analysis. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Application of analyses generated 16 major research topics: (1) implementation/intervention science; (2) HIV and women's health; (3) outcomes research and quality; (4) veterans/military studies; (5) provider/primary-care interventions; (6) geriatrics and formal/informal care; (7) policies and health outcomes; (8) medication treatment/therapy; (9) patient interventions; (10) health insurance legislation and policies; (11) public health policies; (12) literature reviews; (13) cost-effectiveness and economic evaluation; (14) cancer care; (15) workforce issues; and (16) socioeconomic status and disparities. The 2-dimensional map revealed that some journals have stronger associations with specific topics. Findings were not consistent with previous studies based on user perceptions. CONCLUSION: Findings of this study can be used by the stakeholders of health services research, policy, and economics to develop future research agendas, target journal submissions, and generate interdisciplinary solutions by examining overlapping journals for particular topics.

COVID-19 Vaccine Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices in Alabama: The Case for Primary Health Care Providers.

OBJECTIVE: To examine knowledge, attitudes, and practices about COVID-19 in Alabama, with a primary focus on vaccination perception and utilization. DESIGN: We used a COVID-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices survey and recruited adult Alabama residents in April-May 2021. PARTICIPANTS: Initial surveys from 1324 Alabamian participants were considered for analysis; after careful review of incomplete responses, 953 were ultimately included for analysis. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Vaccine behavior and hesitancy comprise a self-reported response contained in the survey instrument. Three primary vaccine groups were used to assess differences in demographic characteristics, health status, perception of susceptibility and severity of COVID-19, sources of information, and trust about COVID-19. RESULTS: Of the 953 survey participants included for analysis, 951 had self-identified vaccine status in which 153 (16.1%) reported to have received the vaccine at the time of the survey, 375 (39.4%) were very likely or somewhat likely to get an approved COVID-19 vaccine if it was offered, and 423 (44.5%) were somewhat unlikely or very unlikely to get an approved COVID-19 vaccine. Health care providers were the most trusted sources of information, regardless of vaccine status. For participants unlikely to receive a vaccine, social media and local news sources were consistently more trusted and utilized than those who were vaccinated or were likely to be. CONCLUSIONS: The perceptions among unvaccinated participants are actionable and provide teachable opportunities to decrease vaccine apprehension.

Critical Success Factors for Addressing Discharge Inefficiency at a Large Academic Medical Center: A Lean Six Sigma Approach.

BACKGROUND: Delayed discharges can be a systemic issue. Understanding the systemic factors that contribute to discharge inefficiencies is essential to addressing discharge inefficiencies. PURPOSE: This article reports on a Lean Six Sigma approach and the process to identifying inefficiencies and systemic barriers to early discharge in a large US academic medical center. METHODS: A qualitative methodology guided this project. In particular, direct observation methods were used to help the project team identify factors contributing to discharge inefficiencies. RESULTS: Overall, findings suggest that establishing consistent multidisciplinary team communication processes was a contributing factor to reducing the inefficiencies around discharges. On a more granular level, key barriers included disparate communication systems, disruptors (specifically Kaizen bursts), and unique role challenges. CONCLUSIONS: This article provides a framework for addressing discharge inefficiencies. Because the output of the process, a critical contributor to the overall outcome, is often not analyzed, this analysis provides value to others contemplating the same or similar process toward discharge efficiency.

Impact of an Emergency Department-to-Home Transitional Care Intervention on Health Service Use in Medicare Beneficiaries: A Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: Hospital-based acute care [emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations] that is preventable with high-quality outpatient care contributes to health care system waste and patient harm. OBJECTIVE: To test the hypothesis that an ED-to-home transitional care intervention reduces hospital-based acute care in chronically ill, older ED visitors. RESEARCH DESIGN: Convergent, parallel, mixed-methods design including a randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Two diverse Florida EDs. SUBJECTS: Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries with chronic illness presenting to the ED. INTERVENTION: The Coleman Care Transition Intervention adapted for ED visitors. MEASURES: The main outcome was hospital-based acute care within 60 days of index ED visit. We also assessed office-based outpatient visits during the same period. RESULTS: The Intervention did not significantly reduce return ED visits or hospitalizations or increase outpatient visits. In those with return ED visits, the Intervention Group was less likely to be hospitalized than the Usual Care Group. Interview themes describe a cycle of hospital-based acute care largely outside patients' control that may be difficult to interrupt with a coaching intervention. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Structural features of the health care system, including lack of access to timely outpatient care, funnel patients into the ED and hospital admission. Reducing hospital-based acute care requires increased focus on the health care system rather than patients' care-seeking decisions.

A Public Health Nursing Model Assists Women Receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Benefits to Identify a Usual Source of Primary Care.

Women enrolled in Florida's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program experience high rates of chronic health problems and often lack a usual source of care. Thus, in this study, we aimed to identify variables related to being in a usual source of care at time of study enrollment and determine whether a public health nursing case management intervention affected the obtainment of a usual source of care. To achieve these aims, we conducted a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial of a public health nursing case management intervention, which included women with chronic health conditions enrolled in TANF (n = 432). Results indicated 35% of the women did not identify a usual source of care at time of study enrollment, and the public health nursing intervention was effective in helping women obtain a usual source of care (OR = 2.5, 95% CI 1.004-6.491). Thus, a public health nursing case management intervention is an effective way to connect TANF participants to a usual source of care, which may lead to improved health outcomes in this vulnerable population of women.

Reported experiences with Medicaid managed care models among parents of children.

The proportion of children enrolled in Medicaid managed care arrangements has grown significantly over the past decade. Yet, few studies have attempted to assess differences in parental reports and ratings of care for children enrolled in different types of Medicaid managed care. We examine parental reports and ratings of care to explore whether and how patient and parent experiences vary by child health status and managed care plan type, including provider-sponsored specialized plans serving only children. Parents of children in a Florida Medicaid demonstration project in two counties over 3 years were surveyed using Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems surveys (n = 2,741-11,067). Ordered logistic regression models with interaction terms were used to assess relationships between plan type, presence of chronic condition, and measures of patient experience. Parents of children enrolled in provider-sponsored plans that focus on pediatrics were more likely to provide a positive rating for their doctor, health plan, and specialty care compared to parents of children in an health maintenance organization (HMO). Parents of children with a chronic condition were less likely than parents of children without a chronic condition to provide a favorable rating of overall health care, their doctor, or health plan. The interaction term that assessed whether patient experience by plan type was impacted by the child's health status was not statistically significant. Parents of Medicaid children may prefer provider-sponsored arrangements over HMOs. Findings can inform the future development of other integrated models of care involving provider-sponsored arrangements, such as pediatric Accountable Care Organizations and Patient-Centered Medical Homes.

Association between living alone and physical inactivity among people with and without disability, Florida Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2009.

People with disability may be at risk of developing diseases due to physical inactivity; social support from family and friends is positively related to engaging in regular physical activity. We compared the association between living alone and engagement in physical activity among people with and without disability in Florida. We used multivariate logistical regression to analyze 2009 Florida Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (n = 10,902) to assess differences in physical activity in disability levels for respondents who lived alone versus those who did not. Respondents with a disability were less likely to engage in physical activity than were people without a disability, regardless of disability type, and the lowest rates of engaging in physical activity were found for people with disability who lived alone. Public health efforts should consider the role of household composition when targeting physical activity interventions among people with disability.

Determinants of hospital fall rate trajectory groups: a longitudinal assessment of nurse staffing and organizational characteristics.

BACKGROUND: Patient falls in acute care hospitals represent a significant patient safety concern. Although cross-sectional studies have shown that fall rates vary widely between acute care hospitals, it is not clear whether hospital fall rates remain consistent over time. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to determine whether hospitals can be categorized into fall rate trajectory groups over time and to identify nurse staffing and hospital characteristics associated with hospital fall rate trajectory groups. METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: We conducted a 54-month (July 2006-December 2010) longitudinal study of U.S. acute care general hospitals participating in the National Database for Nursing Quality Indicators (2007). We used latent class growth modeling to categorize hospitals into groups based on their long-term fall rates. Nurse staffing and hospital characteristics associated with membership in the highest hospital fall rate group were identified using logistic regression. FINDINGS: A sample of 1,529 hospitals (mean fall rate of 3.65 per 1,000 patient days) contributed data to the analysis. Latent class growth modeling findings classified hospital into three groups based on fall rate trajectories: consistently high (mean fall rate of 4.96 per 1,000 patient days), consistently medium (mean fall rate of 3.63 per 1,000 patient days), and consistently low (mean fall rate of 2.50 per 1,000 patient days). Hospitals with higher total nurse staffing (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.85, 0.99]), Magnet status (OR = 0.49, 95% CI [0.35, 0.70]), and bed size greater than 300 beds (OR = 0.70, 95% CI [0.51, 0.94]) were significantly less likely to be categorized in the "consistently high" fall rate group. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Over this 54-month period, hospitals were categorized into three groups based on long-term fall rates. Hospital-level factors differed among these three groups. This suggests that there may be hospitals in which "best practices" for fall prevention might be identified. In addition, administrators may be able to reduce fall rates by maintaining greater nurse staffing ratios as well as fostering an environment consistent with that of Magnet hospitals.

Associations Between Social Networks and COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in 4 Rural Alabama Counties: Survey Findings.

OBJECTIVES: The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how vaccination decisions are influenced by misinformation, disinformation, and social pressures, leading to varied and inequitable uptake rates. In this study, we examined how COVID-19 vaccine messages received via social networks were associated with vaccine uptake in rural Alabama. METHODS: From November 2021 through March 2022, we collected 700 responses to a telephone survey administered in 4 rural Alabama counties. We asked respondents to indicate whether certain social relationships (eg, family, businesses) tried to influence them to (1) obtain or (2) avoid a COVID-19 vaccine. We used χ2 tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, Mantel-Haenszel χ2 tests, and Fisher exact tests to examine the associations between vaccination status and survey responses. RESULTS: Respondents in majority-African American counties were significantly more likely than those in majority-White counties to have received ≥1 dose of COVID-19 vaccine (89.8% vs 72.3%; P < .001). Respondents who received ≥1 dose had a significantly higher mean age than those who had not (58.0 vs 39.0 years; P < .001). Respondents who were encouraged to get vaccinated by religious leaders were more likely to have received ≥1 dose (P = .001), and those who were encouraged to avoid vaccination by family (P = .007), friends (P = .02), coworkers (P = .003), and health care providers (P < .001) were less likely to have received ≥1 dose. Respondents with more interpersonal relationships that encouraged them to avoid vaccination were more likely to be unvaccinated (P < .001). CONCLUSIONS: Interpersonal relationships and demographic characteristics appeared to be important in COVID-19 vaccine decision-making in rural Alabama. Further research needs to identify how to facilitate vaccine-positive interpersonal relationships, such as peer mentoring and trusted messenger interventions.

The Integration of Quality Improvement and Health Care Simulation: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Quality improvement (QI) and simulation employ complementary approaches to improve the care provided to patients. There is a significant opportunity to leverage these disciplines, yet little is known about how they are utilized in concert. The purpose of this study is to explore how QI and simulation have been used together in health care. METHODS: This scoping review includes studies published between 2015 and 2021 in 4 databases: CINAHL, Embase, PubMed, and Scopus. RESULTS: The search yielded 921 unique articles.18 articles met the inclusion criteria and specifically described QI and simulation collaborative projects. Of the 18 articles, 28% focused on improvements in patient care, 17% on educational interventions, 17% on the identification of latent safety threats (LSTs) that could have an impact on clinical care, 11% on the creation of new processes, 11% on checklist creation, and 6% on both LST identification and educational intervention. The review revealed that 61% of the included studies demonstrated a concurrent integration of simulation and QI activities, while 33% used a sequential approach. CONCLUSIONS: There is a paucity of studies detailing the robust and synergistic use of QI and simulation. The findings of this review suggest a positive impact on patient safety when QI and simulation are used in tandem. The systematic integration of these disciplines and the use of established reporting guidelines can promote patient safety in practice and in the literature.

Integrating Social Determinants of Health in Machine Learning-Driven Decision Support for Diabetes Case Management: Protocol for a Sequential Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: The use of both clinical factors and social determinants of health (SDoH) in referral decision-making for case management may improve optimal use of resources and reduce outcome disparities among patients with diabetes. OBJECTIVE: This study proposes the development of a data-driven decision-support system incorporating interactions between clinical factors and SDoH into an algorithm for prioritizing who receives case management services. The paper presents a design for prediction validation and preimplementation assessment that uses a mixed methods approach to guide the implementation of the system. METHODS: Our study setting is a large, tertiary care academic medical center in the Deep South of the United States, where SDoH contribute to disparities in diabetes-specific hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits. This project will develop an interpretable artificial intelligence model for a population with diabetes using SDoH and clinical data to identify which posthospitalization cases have a higher likelihood of subsequent ED use. The electronic health record data collected for the study include demographics, SDoH, comorbidities, hospitalization-related factors, laboratory test results, and medication use to predict posthospitalization ED visits. Subsequently, a mixed methods approach will be used to validate prediction outcomes and develop an implementation strategy from insights into patient outcomes from case managers, clinicians, and quality and patient safety experts. RESULTS: As of December 2023, we had abstracted data on 174,871 inpatient encounters between January 2018 and September 2023, involving 89,355 unique inpatients meeting inclusion criteria. Both clinical and SDoH data items were included for these patient encounters. In total, 85% of the inpatient visits (N=148,640) will be used for training (learning from the data) and the remaining 26,231 inpatient visits will be used for mixed-methods validation (testing). CONCLUSIONS: By integrating a critical suite of SDoH with clinical data related to diabetes, the proposed data-driven risk stratification model can enable individualized risk estimation and inform health professionals (eg, case managers) about the risk of patients' upcoming ED use. The prediction outcome could potentially automate case management referrals, helping to better prioritize services. By taking a mixed methods approach, we aim to align the model with the hospital's specific quality and patient safety considerations for the quality of patient care and the optimization of case management resource allocation. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/56049.

Potentially preventable use of emergency services: the role of low health literacy.

BACKGROUND: Limited health literacy is a barrier for understanding health information and has been identified as a risk factor for overuse of the emergency department (ED). The association of health literacy with access to primary care services in patients presenting to the ED has not been fully explored. OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship between health literacy, access to primary care, and reasons for ED use among adults presenting for emergency care. METHODS: Structured interviews that included health literacy assessment were performed involving 492 ED patients at one Southern academic medical center. Unadjusted and multivariable logistic regression models assessed the relationship between health literacy and (1) access to a personal physician; (2) doctor office visits; (3) ED visits; (4) hospitalizations; and (5) potentially preventable hospital admissions. RESULTS: After adjusting for sociodemographic and health status, those with limited health literacy reported fewer doctor office visits [odds ratio (OR)=0.6; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.4-1.0], greater ED use, (OR=1.6; 95% CI, 1.0-2.4), and had more potentially preventable hospital admissions (OR=1.7; 95% CI, 1.0-2.7) than those with adequate health literacy. After further controlling for insurance and employment status, fewer doctor office visits remained significantly associated with patient health literacy (OR=0.5; 95% CI, 0.3-0.9). Patients with limited health literacy reported a preference for emergency care, as the services were perceived as better. CONCLUSIONS: Among ED patients, limited health literacy was independently associated with fewer doctor office visits and a preference for emergency care. Policies to reduce ED use should consider steps to limit barriers and improve attitudes toward primary care services.

Achieving Consensus Among Stakeholders Using the Nominal Group Technique: A Perinatal Quality Collaborative Approach.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Public health systems exhibiting strong connections across the workforce experience substantial population health improvements. This is especially important for improving quality and achieving value among vulnerable populations such as mothers and infants. The purpose of this research was to demonstrate how Alabama's newly formed perinatal quality collaborative (Alabama Perinatal Quality Collaborative [ALPQC]) used evidenced-based processes to achieve consensus in identifying population quality improvement (QI) initiatives. METHODS: This multiphase quantitative and qualitative study engaged stakeholders (n = 44) at the ALPQC annual meeting. Maternal and neonatal focused QI project topics were identified and catalogued from active perinatal quality collaborative websites. The Delphi method and the nominal group technique (NGT) were used to prioritize topics using selected criteria ( impact , enthusiasm , alignment , and feasibility ) and stakeholder input. RESULTS: Using the Delphi method, 11 of 27 identified project topics met inclusion criteria for stakeholder consideration. Employing the NGT, maternal projects received more total votes (n = 535) than neonatal projects (n = 313). Standard deviations were higher for neonatal projects (SD: feasibility = 10.9, alignment = 17.9, enthusiasm = 19.2, and impact = 22.1) than for maternal projects (SD: alignment = 5.9, enthusiasm = 7.3, impact = 7.9, and feasibility = 11.1). Hypertension in pregnancy (n = 117) and neonatal abstinence syndrome (n = 177) achieved the most votes total and for impact (n = 35 and n = 54, respectively) but variable support for feasibility . CONCLUSIONS: Together, these techniques achieved valid consensus across multidisciplinary stakeholders in alignment with state public health priorities. This model can be used in other settings to integrate stakeholder input and enhance the value of a common population QI agenda.

Evaluating Outcomes and Time Delays of a Non-Trainee-Driven Hospitalist Procedure Service.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Ultrasound guidance has become standard of care in hospital medicine for invasive bedside procedures, especially central venous catheter placement. Despite ultrasound-guided bedside procedures having a high degree of success, only a few hospitalists perform them. This is because these are usually performed by radiologists or in the setting of trainee-run procedure teams. We sought to determine the impact of a non-trainee driven , hospitalist-run procedure service relative to time from consult to procedure. METHODS: The University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital (UAB), Department of Hospital Medicine, trained 8 non-trainee hospitalist physicians (from existing staff) to implement the ultrasound-guided procedure service. This study examines consult to procedure completion time since the implementation of the procedure service (2014 to 2020). Univariate analyses are used to analyze pre-implementation (2012-2014), pilot (2014-2016), and post-implementation data (2016-2018 initial, and 2018-2020 sustained). RESULTS: Results suggest a 50% reduction in time from consult to procedure completion when compared with the period before implementation of the nontrainee hospitalist procedure service. CONCLUSIONS: A hospitalist procedure service, which does not include trainees, results in less time lag from consult to procedure completion time, which could increase patient satisfaction and improve throughput. As such, this study has wide generalizability to community hospitals and other nonacademic medical centers that may not have trainees.

Reducing hospital acquired pressure injury in a learning health center: Making the case for quality.

Introduction: The purpose of this descriptive study is to examine a learning health system (LHS) continuous improvement and learning approach as a case for increased quality, standardized processes, redesigned workflows, and better resource utilization. Hospital acquired pressure injuries (HAPI) commonly occur in the hospitalized patient and are costly and preventable. This study examines the effect of a LHS approach to reducing HAPI within a large academic medical center. Methods: Our learning health center implemented a 6-year series of iterative improvements that included both process and technology changes, with robust data and analytical reforms. In this descriptive, observational study, we retrospectively examined longitudinal data from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2022, examining the variables of total number of all-stage HAPI counts and average length of stay (ALOS). We also analyzed patient characteristics observed/expected mortality ratios, as well as total patient days, and the case-mix index to determine whether these factors varied over the study period. We used the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality cost estimates to identify the estimated financial benefit of HAPI reductions on an annualized basis. Results: HAPI per 1000 patient days for FY 20 (October 1-September 30) and FY 21, decreased from 2.30 to 1.30 and annualized event AHRQ cost estimates for HAPI decreased by $4 786 980 from FY 20 to FY 21. A strong, statistically significant, negative and seemingly counterintuitive correlation was found (r = -.524, P = .003) between HAPI and ALOS. Conclusions: The LHS efforts directed toward HAPI reduction led to sustained improvements during the study period. These results demonstrate the benefits of a holistic approach to quality improvement offered by the LHS model. The LHS model goes beyond a problem-based approach to process improvement. Rather than targeting a specific problem to solve, the LHS system creates structures that yield process improvement benefits over a continued time period.

Letter to the Editor Response: Exploring COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among Stakeholders in African American and Latinx Communities in the Deep South Through the Lens of the Health Belief Model.

The purpose of this submission to respond to a Letter to the Editor recently submitted regarding our manuscript, "Exploring COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy among Stakeholders in African American and Latinx Communities in the Deep South through the Lens of the Health Belief Model" published in the American Journal of Health Promotion in February, 2022. The manuscript reported on a study that had as its purpose to qualitatively explore perceptions related to COVID-19 vaccination intention among African American and Latinx participants and suggest potential intervention strategies.