Physicians' experiences using commercial e-prescribing systems.

Public and private efforts are under way to promote electronic prescribing to improve health care safety, quality, and efficiency. Findings from this qualitative study of physician practices suggest that substantial gaps may exist between advocates' vision of e-prescribing and how physicians use commercial e-prescribing systems today. While physicians were positive about the most basic e-prescribing features, they reported major barriers to maintaining complete patient medication lists, using clinical decision support, obtaining formulary data, and electronically transmitting prescriptions to pharmacies. Three factors help explain the gaps: product limitations, external implementation challenges, and physicians' preferences about using specific product features.

Construction activity in U.S. hospitals.

Hospital construction activity is increasing, but little information exists on what types of hospital capacity are affected and what is motivating specific efforts. Our analysis of Round Five Community Tracking Study data revealed four general types of activity: new hospital construction or expansion of existing general hospital capacity; new or expanded capacity in specialty services; replacement of aged facilities; and expansion of capacity-constrained services. Some of these actions are responsive to community need, but others resemble a medical-arms-race response. Overall, current construction activity will provide more convenient access for some consumers but at high cost if excess capacity results.

Hospitals' responses to nurse staffing shortages.

Hospitals have used a mix of short-term and long-term strategies to deal with nurse shortages, particularly efforts emphasizing nurse education, competitive compensation, and temporary staff. Interviews with health care leaders from Round Five of the Community Tracking Study indicate that these activities, in conjunction with other factors, have assisted in reducing shortages of hospital nurses. However, hospitals' actions have increased costs and raised concerns about their potential impact on patient care. Additionally, a large degree of doubt exists among hospitals about their ability to meet future nursing needs.

Public employees' health benefits survive major threats, so far.

Previous studies of public employees' health benefits indicate that they have been spared many of the changes evident in the private sector. But the recession and plunging state revenues in the early 2000s presented growing challenges to trying to preserve these benefits. Findings from the Round Five site visits of the Community Tracking Study (2005) reveal that benefits have still witnessed surprisingly few major modifications. But a growing gap between public- and private-sector benefits and new accounting requirements for government entities' retirement costs raise new threats to this protected status.

The community safety net and prescription drug access for low-income, uninsured people.

While the new Medicare drug benefit has helped alleviate concerns about prescription drug access for elderly and disabled Americans, many low-income, uninsured people under age 65 continue to rely on community safety nets to get needed medications. As the number of uninsured Americans increases, safety net providers are stretching limited resources to meet growing prescription drug needs, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2005 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities. Despite redoubled efforts--centered on obtaining discounted drugs and donated medications--to make affordable drugs available to needy patients, safety net providers and community advocates report that many low-income, uninsured people continue to face major barriers to obtaining prescription drugs.

Rising pressure: hospital emergency departments as barometers of the health care system.

Pressures--ranging from persuading specialists to provide on-call coverage to dealing with growing numbers of patients with serious mental illness--are building in already-crowded hospital emergency departments (EDs) across the country, according to findings from the Center for Studying Health System Change's (HSC) 2005 site visits to 12 nationally representative communities. As the number of ED visits rises significantly faster than population growth, many hospitals are expanding emergency department capacity. At the same time, hospitals face an ongoing nursing shortage, contributing to tight inpatient capacity that in turn hinders admitting ED patients. In their role as hospitals' "front door" for attracting insured inpatient admissions, emergency departments also increasingly are expected to help hospitals compete for insured patients while still meeting obligations to provide emergency care to all-comers under federal law. Failure to address these growing pressures may compromise access to emergency care for patients and spur already rapidly rising health care costs.