Illness Perception and the Impact of a Definitive Diagnosis on Women With Ischemia and No Obstructive Coronary Artery Disease: A Qualitative Study.

BACKGROUND: Ischemia and no obstructive coronary artery disease (INOCA) disproportionately impacts women, yet the underlying pathologies are often not distinguished, contributing to adverse health care experiences and poor quality of life. Coronary function testing at the time of invasive coronary angiography allows for improved diagnostic accuracy. Despite increased recognition of INOCA and expanding access to testing, data lack on first-person perspectives and the impact of receiving a diagnosis in women with INOCA. METHODS: From 2020 to 2021, we conducted structured telephone interviews with 2 groups of women with INOCA who underwent invasive coronary angiography (n=29) at Yale New Haven Hospital, New Haven, CT: 1 group underwent coronary function testing (n=20, of whom 18 received a mechanism-based diagnosis) and the other group who did not undergo coronary function testing (n=9). The interviews were analyzed using the constant comparison method by a multidisciplinary team. RESULTS: The mean age was 59.7 years, and 79% and 3% were non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black, respectively. Through iterative coding, 4 themes emerged and were further separated into subthemes that highlight disease experience aspects to be addressed in patient care: (1) distress from symptoms of uncertain cause: symptom constellation, struggle for sensemaking, emotional toll, threat to personal and professional identity; (2) a long journey to reach a definitive diagnosis: self-advocacy and fortitude, healthcare interactions brought about further uncertainty and trauma, therapeutic alliance, sources of information; (3) establishing a diagnosis enabled a path forward: relief and validation, empowerment; and (4) commitment to promoting awareness and supporting other women: recognition of sex and racial/ethnic disparities, support for other women. CONCLUSIONS: Insights about how women experience the symptoms of INOCA and their interactions with clinicians and the healthcare system hold powerful lessons for more patient-centered care. A coronary function testing-informed diagnosis greatly influences the healthcare experiences, quality of life, and emotional states of women with INOCA.

Organizational culture and barriers to change in University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital Cardiac Unit.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to high mortality in Ethiopia. Hospital organizational culture affects patient outcomes including mortality rates for patients with cardiovascular disease. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess organizational culture and determine barriers to change in the Cardiac Unit of University of Gondar Comprehensive Specialized Hospital. METHODS: We used a mixed methods approach with a sequential explanatory design. We collected data through a survey adapted from a validated instrument measuring organizational culture (n = 78) and in-depth interviews (n = 10) with key informants from different specialty areas. We analyzed the quantitative data using descriptive statistics and the qualitative data through a constant comparative method of thematic analysis. We integrated the data during the interpretation phase to generate a comprehensive understanding of the culture within the Cardiac Unit. RESULTS: The quantitative results indicated poor psychological safety and learning and problem solving aspects of culture. On the other hand, there were high levels of organizational commitment and adequate time for improvement. The qualitative results also indicated resistance to change among employees working in the Cardiac Unit as well as other barriers to organizational culture change. CONCLUSION: Most aspects of the Cardiac Unit culture were poor or weak, signaling opportunities to improve culture through identifying culture changing needs, implying the need to be aware of the subcultures within the hospitals that influence performance. Thus, it is important to consider hospital culture in planning health policy, strategies, and guidelines. RECOMMENDATIONS: It is of paramount importance to strengthen organizational culture through fostering a safe space that enables workers to express divergent views and actively considering such views to improve the quality of care, supporting multidisciplinary teams to think creatively to address problems, and investing in data collection to monitor changes in practice and patient outcomes.

Sustaining Area Agency on Aging Services During a Pandemic: Innovation Through Community-Based Partnerships.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) have funded, coordinated, and provided services since the 1960s, evolving in response to changes in policy, funding, and the political arena. Many of their usual service delivery programs and processes were severely disrupted with the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Increasing evidence suggests the importance of partnerships in AAA's capacity to adapt services; however, specific examples of adaptations have been limited. We sought to understand how partnerships may have supported adaptation during the pandemic, from the perspectives of both AAAs and their partners. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data from an explanatory sequential mixed-methods parent study. Data were collected from 12 AAAs diverse in terms of geographic region, governance structure and size, as well as a range of partner organizations. We completed 105 in-depth interviews from July 2020 to April 2021. A 5-member multidisciplinary team coded the data using a constant comparative method of analysis, supported by ATLAS.ti Scientific Software. RESULTS: AAAs and their partners described strategies and provided examples of ways to rapidly transform service delivery including reducing isolation, alleviating food insecurity, adapting program design and delivery, and leveraging partnerships and repurposing resources. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: AAAs and partner organizations are uniquely positioned to innovate during times of disruption. Findings may enhance AAA and partner portfolios of evidence-based and evidence-supported programs.

Leadership development in complex health systems: a qualitative study.

OBJECTIVE: Leadership is associated with organisational performance in healthcare, including quality, safety and clinical outcomes for patients. Leadership development programmes have proliferated in recent years. Nevertheless, very few have examined participant experiences in depth in order to understand which programmatic aspects they regard as most valuable relative to leadership in increasingly complex systems, or whether and how learnings may sustain over time. Accordingly, we explored experiences of participants in an interdisciplinary leadership development programme using qualitative methods over an extended look-back period. SETTING: Health and social care sectors in the UK. PARTICIPANTS: Key informants from three cohorts of individuals working in leadership roles in health and social care in the UK: 2013/2014, 2015/2016 and 2017/2018. We contacted 32 participants, and 26 completed interviews (81% response rate). PRIMARY AND SECONDARY OUTCOMES: We explored (1) whether and how specific skills and competencies developed during the programme were applied and/or sustained over time, and (2) whether and how the impact of the programme changed as alumni progressed through their career. RESULTS: Three major recurrent themes emerged from participants' experiences: (1) specific features of the programme meaningfully impact professional development at multiple levels; (2) the coupling of a professional network and practical tools allowed participants to address system-wide problems in new ways and (3) participants describe a level of learning that sustained and amplified over time with increased complexity in their work. CONCLUSION: This work highlights specific design characteristics of leadership development programmes that may help promote relevance and impact. Programme learnings can be translated into practice in substantive ways, with potential for the benefits of successful leadership development efforts to amplify, not fade, over time.

Quality Improvement Initiatives to Reduce Mortality: An Opportunity to Engage Palliative Care and Improve Advance Care Planning.

BACKGROUND:: Despite substantial efforts to integrate palliative care and improve advance care planning, both are underutilized. Quality improvement initiatives focused on reducing mortality may offer an opportunity for facilitating engagement with palliative care and advance care planning. OBJECTIVE:: In the context of an initiative to reduce acute myocardial infarction (AMI) mortality, we examined challenges and opportunities for engaging palliative care and improving advance care planning. METHODS:: We performed a secondary analysis of qualitative data collected through the Leadership Saves Lives initiative between 2014 and 2016. Data included in-depth interviews with hospital executives, clinicians, administrators, and quality improvement staff (n = 28) from 5 hospitals participating in the Mayo Clinic Care Network. Focused analysis examined emergent themes related to end-of-life experiences, including palliative care and advance care planning. RESULTS:: Participants described challenges related to palliative care and advance care planning in the AMI context, including intervention decisions during an acute event, delivering care aligned with patient and family preferences, and the culture around palliative care and hospice. Participants proposed strategies for addressing such challenges in the context of improving AMI quality outcomes. CONCLUSIONS:: Clinicians who participated in an initiative to reduce AMI mortality highlighted the challenges associated with decision-making regarding interventions, systems for documenting patient goals of care, and broader engagement with palliative care. Quality improvement initiatives focused on mortality may offer a meaningful and feasible opportunity for engaging palliative care. Primary palliative care training is needed to improve discussions about patient and family goals of care near the end of life.

Development and Psychometric Properties of a Scale to Measure Hospital Organizational Culture for Cardiovascular Care.

BACKGROUND: Because organizational culture is increasingly understood as fundamental to achieving high performance in hospital and other healthcare settings, the ability to measure this nuanced concept empirically has gained importance. Aside from measures of patient safety culture, no measure of organizational culture has been widely endorsed in the medical literature, limiting replication of previous findings and broader use in interventional studies. METHODS AND RESULTS: We sought to develop and assess the validity and reliability of a scale for assessing organizational culture in the context of hospitals' efforts to reducing 30-day risk-standardized mortality after acute myocardial infarction. The 31-item scale was completed by 147 individuals representing 10 hospitals during August and September 2014. The resulting organizational culture scale demonstrated high level of construct validity and internal consistency. Factor analyses indicated that the 31 items loaded well (loading values 0.48-0.90), supporting distinguishable domains of (1) learning environment, (2) psychological safety, (3) commitment to the organization, (4) senior management support, and (5) time for improvement efforts. Cronbach α coefficients were 0.94 for the scale and ranged from 0.77 to 0.88 for the subscales. The scale displayed reasonable convergent validity and statistically significant variability across hospitals, with hospital identity accounting for 11.3% of variance in culture scores across respondents. CONCLUSIONS: We developed and validated a relatively easy-to-administer survey that was able to detect substantial variability in organizational culture across different hospitals and may be useful in measuring hospital culture and evaluating changes in culture over time as part performance improvement efforts.

Interventions for Reducing Hospital Readmission Rates: The Role of Hospice and Palliative Care.

BACKGROUND: Despite evidence that enrollment with hospice services has the potential to reduce hospital readmission rates, previous research has not examined exactly how hospitals may promote the appropriate use of hospice and palliative care for their discharged patients. Therefore, we sought to explore the strategies used by hospitals to increase the use of hospice and palliative care for patients at risk of readmission. METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a study of hospitals that were participating in the State Action on Avoidable Readmissions (STAAR) initiative, a quality improvement collaborative. We used data attained from 46 in-depth interviews conducted during 10 hospital site visits using a standard discussion guide and protocol. We used a grounded theory approach using the constant comparative method to generate recurrent and unifying themes. RESULTS: We found that a positive effect for hospitals participating in the STAAR initiative was enhanced engagement in efforts to promote greater use of hospice and palliative care as a possible method of reducing unplanned readmissions, the central goal of the STAAR initiative. Hospital staff described strategies to increase the use of hospice and palliative care that included (1) designing and implementing tracking systems to identify patients most at risk of being readmitted, (2) providing education about hospice and palliative care to family, internal and external clinical groups, and (3) establishing closer links to posthospital settings. CONCLUSION: National efforts to reduce rehospitalizations may result in improved integration of hospice and palliative care for patients who are at risk of readmission.

What Works in Readmissions Reduction: How Hospitals Improve Performance.

BACKGROUND: Hospitals across the United States are pursuing strategies to reduce avoidable readmissions but the evidence on how best to accomplish this goal is mixed, with no specific clinical practice shown to reduce readmissions consistently. Changes to hospital organizational practices, a key component of context, also may be critical to improving performance on readmissions, but this has not been studied. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to understand how high-performing hospitals improved risk-stratified readmission rates, and whether their changes to clinical practices and organizational practices differed from low-performing hospitals. DESIGN: This was a qualitative study of 10 hospitals in which readmission rates had decreased (n=7) or increased (n=3). PARTICIPANTS: A total of 82 hospital staff drawn from hospitals that had participated in the State Action on Avoidable Readmissions quality improvement initiative. RESULTS: High-performing hospitals were distinguished by several organizational practices that facilitated readmissions reduction, that is, collective habits of action or interpretation shared by organization members. First, high-performing hospitals reported focused efforts to improve collaboration across hospital departments. Second, they helped postacute providers improve care by sharing the hospital's clinical and quality improvement expertise and data. Third, high performers enthusiastically engaged in trial and error learning to reduce readmissions. Fourth, they emphasized that readmissions represented bad outcomes for patients, de-emphasizing the role of financial penalties. Both high-performing and low-performing hospitals had implemented most clinical practice changes commonly recommended to reduce readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings highlight several organizational practices that hospitals may be able to use to enhance the effectiveness of their readmissions reduction efforts.

Integrating new practices: a qualitative study of how hospital innovations become routine.

BACKGROUND: Hospital quality improvement efforts absorb substantial time and resources, but many innovations fail to integrate into organizational routines, undermining the potential to sustain the new practices. Despite a well-developed literature on the initial implementation of new practices, we have limited knowledge about the mechanisms by which integration occurs. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study using a purposive sample of hospitals that participated in the State Action on Avoidable Rehospitalizations (STAAR) initiative, a collaborative to reduce hospital readmissions that encouraged members to adopt new practices. We selected hospitals where risk-standardized readmission rates (RSRR) had improved (n = 7) or deteriorated (n = 3) over the course of the first 2 years of the STAAR initiative (2010-2011 to 2011-2012) and interviewed a range of staff at each site (90 total). We recruited hospitals until reaching theoretical saturation. The constant comparative method was used to conduct coding and identification of key themes. RESULTS: When innovations were successfully integrated, participants consistently reported that a small number of key staff held the innovation in place for as long as a year while more permanent integrating mechanisms began to work. Depending on characteristics of the innovation, one of three categories of integrating mechanisms eventually took over the role of holding new practices in place. Innovations that proved intrinsically rewarding to the staff, by making their jobs easier or more gratifying, became integrated through shifts in attitudes and norms over time. Innovations for which the staff did not perceive benefits to themselves were integrated through revised performance standards if the innovation involved complex tasks and through automation if the innovation involved simple tasks. CONCLUSIONS: Hospitals have an opportunity to promote the integration of new practices by planning for the extended effort required to hold a new practice in place while integration mechanisms take hold. By understanding how integrating mechanisms correspond to innovation characteristics, hospitals may be able to foster integrating mechanisms most likely to work for particular innovations.

Leadership development programs for physicians: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: Physician leadership development programs typically aim to strengthen physicians' leadership competencies and improve organizational performance. We conducted a systematic review of medical literature on physician leadership development programs in order to characterize the setting, educational content, teaching methods, and learning outcomes achieved. METHODS: Articles were identified through a search in Ovid MEDLINE from 1950 through November 2013. We included articles that described programs designed to expose physicians to leadership concepts, outlined teaching methods, and reported evaluation outcomes. A thematic analysis was conducted using a structured data entry form with categories for setting/target group, educational content, format, type of evaluation and outcomes. RESULTS: We identified 45 studies that met eligibility criteria, of which 35 reported on programs exclusively targeting physicians. The majority of programs focused on skills training and technical and conceptual knowledge, while fewer programs focused on personal growth and awareness. Half of the studies used pre/post intervention designs, and four studies used a comparison group. Positive outcomes were reported in all studies, although the majority of studies relied on learner satisfaction scores and self-assessed knowledge or behavioral change. Only six studies documented favorable organizational outcomes, such as improvement in quality indicators for disease management. The leadership programs examined in these studies were characterized by the use of multiple learning methods, including lectures, seminars, group work, and action learning projects in multidisciplinary teams. DISCUSSION: Physician leadership development programs are associated with increased self-assessed knowledge and expertise; however, few studies have examined outcomes at a system level. Our synthesis of the literature suggests important gaps, including a lack of programs that integrate non-physician and physician professionals, limited use of more interactive learning and feedback to develop greater self-awareness, and an overly narrow focus on individual-level rather than system-level outcomes.

Hospital collaboration with emergency medical services in the care of patients with acute myocardial infarction: perspectives from key hospital staff.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Evidence suggests that active collaboration between hospitals and emergency medical services (EMS) is significantly associated with lower acute myocardial infarction mortality rates; however, the nature of such collaborations is not well understood. We seek to characterize views of key hospital staff about collaboration with EMS in the care of patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction. METHODS: We performed an exploratory analysis of qualitative data previously collected from site visits and detailed interviews with 11 US hospitals that ranked in the top or bottom 5% of performance on 30-day risk-standardized acute myocardial infarction mortality rates, using Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services data from 2005 to 2007. We selected all codes from the previous analysis in which EMS was most likely to have been discussed. A multidisciplinary team analyzed the data with the constant comparative method to generate recurrent themes. RESULTS: Both higher- and lower-performing hospitals reported that EMS is critical to the provision of timely care for patients with acute myocardial infarction. However, close collaborative relationships with EMS were more apparent in the higher-performing hospitals, which demonstrated specific investment in and attention to EMS through respect for EMS as valued professionals and colleagues, strong communication and coordination with EMS and active engagement of EMS in hospital acute myocardial infarction quality improvement efforts. CONCLUSION: Hospital staff from higher-performing hospitals described broad, multifaceted strategies to support collaboration with EMS in providing acute myocardial infarction care. The association of these strategies with hospital performance should be tested quantitatively in a larger representative study.

Features of high quality discharge planning for patients following acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Hospital discharge planning is required as a Medicare Condition of Participation (CoP), and is essential to the health and safety for all patients. However, there have been no studies examining specific hospital discharge processes, such as patient education and communication with primary care providers, in relation to hospital 30-day risk standardized mortality rates (RSMRs) for patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). OBJECTIVE: To identify hospital discharge processes that may be associated with better performance in hospital AMI care as measured by RSMR. DESIGN: We conducted a qualitative study of U.S. Hospitals, which were selected based on their RSMR reported by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Hospital Compare website for the most recent data available (January 1, 2005 - December 31, 2007). We selected hospitals that ranked in the top 5 % and the bottom 5 % of RSMR for the two consecutive years. We focused on hospitals at the extreme ends of the range in RSMR, known as deviant case sampling. We excluded hospitals that did not have the ability to perform percutaneous coronary intervention in order to decrease the heterogeneity in our sample. PARTICIPANTS: Participants included key hospital clinical and administrative staff most involved in discharge planning for patients admitted with AMI. METHODS: We conducted 14 site visits and 57 in-depth interviews using a standard discussion guide. We employed a grounded theory approach and used the constant comparative method to generate recurrent and unifying themes. KEY RESULTS: We identified five broad discharge processes that distinguished higher and lower performing hospitals: 1) initiating discharge planning upon patient admission; 2) using multidisciplinary case management services; 3) ensuring that a follow-up plan is in place prior to discharge; 4) providing focused education sessions for both the patient and family; and 5) contacting the primary care physician regarding the patient's hospitalization and follow-up care plan. CONCLUSION: Comprehensive and more intense discharge processes that start on admission continue during the patient's hospital stay, and follow up with the primary care physician within 2 days post-discharge, may be critical in reducing hospital RSMR for patients with AMI.

Hospices' enrollment policies may contribute to underuse of hospice care in the United States.

Hospice use in the United States is growing, but little is known about barriers that terminally ill patients may face when trying to access hospice care. This article reports the results of the first national survey of the enrollment policies of 591 US hospices. The survey revealed that 78 percent of hospices had at least one enrollment policy that may restrict access to care for patients with potentially high-cost medical care needs, such as chemotherapy or total parenteral nutrition. Smaller hospices, for-profit hospices, and hospices in certain regions of the country consistently reported more limited enrollment policies. We observe that hospice providers' own enrollment decisions may be an important contributor to previously observed underuse of hospice by patients and families. Policy changes that should be considered include increasing the Medicare hospice per diem rate for patients with complex needs, which could enable more hospices to expand enrollment.

Community perspectives on roles and responsibilities for strengthening primary health care in rural Ethiopia.

Government-community partnerships are central to developing effective, sustainable models of primary health care in low-income countries; however, evidence about the nature of partnerships lacks the perspective of community members. Our objective was to characterise community perspectives regarding the respective roles and responsibilities of government and the community in efforts to strengthen primary health care in low-income settings. We conducted a qualitative study using focus groups (n=14 groups in each of seven primary health care units in Amhara and Oromia, Ethiopia, with a total of 140 participants) in the context of the Ethiopian Millennium Rural Initiative. Results indicated that community members defined important roles and responsibilities for both communities and governments. Community roles included promoting recommended health behaviours; influencing social norms regarding health; and contributing resources as feasible. Government roles included implementing oversight of health centres; providing human resources, infrastructure, equipment, medication and supplies; and demonstrating support for community health workers, who are seen as central to the rural health system. Renewed efforts in health system strengthening highlight the importance of community participation in initiatives to improve primary health care in rural settings. Community perspectives provide critical insights to defining, implementing and sustaining partnerships in these settings.

Hospital strategies for reducing risk-standardized mortality rates in acute myocardial infarction.

BACKGROUND: Despite recent improvements in survival after acute myocardial infarction (AMI), U.S. hospitals vary 2-fold in their 30-day risk-standardized mortality rates (RSMRs). Nevertheless, information is limited on hospital-level factors that may be associated with RSMRs. OBJECTIVE: To identify hospital strategies that were associated with lower RSMRs. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey of 537 hospitals (91% response rate) and weighted multivariate regression by using data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to determine the associations between hospital strategies and hospital RSMRs. SETTING: Acute care hospitals with an annualized AMI volume of at least 25 patients. PARTICIPANTS: Patients hospitalized with AMI between 1 January 2008 and 31 December 2009. MEASUREMENTS: Hospital performance improvement strategies, characteristics, and 30-day RSMRs. RESULTS: In multivariate analysis, several hospital strategies were significantly associated with lower RSMRs and in aggregate were associated with clinically important differences in RSMRs. These strategies included holding monthly meetings to review AMI cases between hospital clinicians and staff who transported patients to the hospital (RSMR lower by 0.70 percentage points), having cardiologists always on site (lower by 0.54 percentage points), fostering an organizational environment in which clinicians are encouraged to solve problems creatively (lower by 0.84 percentage points), not cross-training nurses from intensive care units for the cardiac catheterization laboratory (lower by 0.44 percentage points), and having physician and nurse champions rather than nurse champions alone (lower by 0.88 percentage points). Fewer than 10% of hospitals reported using at least 4 of these 5 strategies. LIMITATION: The cross-sectional design demonstrates statistical associations but cannot establish causal relationships. CONCLUSION: Several strategies, which are currently implemented by relatively few hospitals, are associated with significantly lower 30-day RSMRs for patients with AMI. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the United Health Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund.

Inputs to quality: supervision, management, and community involvement in health facilities in Egypt in 2004.

BACKGROUND: As low- and middle-income countries experience economic development, ensuring quality of health care delivery is a central component of health reform. Nevertheless, health reforms in low- and middle-income countries have focused more on access to services rather than the quality of these services, and reporting on quality has been limited. In the present study, we sought to examine the prevalence and regional variation in key management practices in Egyptian health facilities within three domains: supervision of the facility from the Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP), managerial processes, and patient and community involvement in care. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of data from 559 facilities surveyed with the Egyptian Service Provision Assessment (ESPA) survey in 2004, the most recent such survey in Egypt. We registered on the Measure Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) website http://legacy.measuredhs.com/login.cfm to gain access to the survey data. From the ESPA sampled 559 MOHP facilities, we excluded a total of 79 facilities because they did not offer facility-based 24-hour care or have at least one physician working in the facility, resulting in a final sample of 480 facilities. The final sample included 76 general service hospitals, 307 rural health units, and 97 maternal and child health and urban health units (MCH/urban units). We used standard frequency analyses to describe facility characteristics and tested the statistical significance of regional differences using chi-square statistics. RESULTS: Nearly all facilities reported having external supervision within the 6 months preceding the interview. In contrast, key facility-level managerial processes, such as having routine and documented management meetings and applying quality assurance approaches, were uncommon. Involvement of communities and patients was also reported in a minority of facilities. Hospitals and health units located in Urban Egypt compared with more rural parts of Egypt were significantly more likely to have management committees that met at least monthly, to keep official records of the meetings, and to have an approach for reviewing quality assurance activities. CONCLUSIONS: Although the data precede the recent reform efforts of the MOHP, they provide a baseline against which future progress can be measured. Targeted efforts to improve facility-level management are critical to supporting quality improvement initiatives directed at improving the quality of health care throughout the country.

Variation in hospital mortality rates for patients with acute myocardial infarction.

Hospitals vary by twofold in their hospital-specific 30-day risk-stratified mortality rates (RSMRs) for Medicare beneficiaries with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, we lack a comprehensive investigation of hospital characteristics associated with 30-day RSMRs and the degree to which the variation in 30-day RSMRs is accounted for by these characteristics, including the socioeconomic status (SES) profile of hospital patient populations. We conducted a cross-sectional national study of hospitals with ≥15 AMI discharges from July 1, 2005 to June 20, 2008. We estimated a multivariable weighted regression using Medicare claims data for hospital-specific 30-day RSMRs, American Hospital Association Survey of Hospitals for hospital characteristics, and the United States Census data reported by Neilsen Claritas, Inc., for zip-code level estimates of SES status. Analysis included 2,908 hospitals with 513,202 AMI discharges. Mean hospital 30-day RSMR was 16.5% (SD 1.7 percentage points). Our multivariable model explained 17.1% of the variation in hospital-specific 30-day RSMRs. Teaching status, number of hospital beds, AMI volume, cardiac facilities available, urban/rural location, geographic region, ownership type, and SES profile of patients were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with 30-day RSMRs. In conclusion, substantial variation in hospital outcomes for patients with AMI remains unexplained by measurements of hospital characteristics including SES patient profile.

Interdisciplinary staffing patterns: do for-profit and nonprofit hospices differ?

BACKGROUND: Interdisciplinary care is fundamental to the hospice philosophy and is a key component of high-quality hospice care. However, little is known about how hospices differ in their interdisciplinary staffing patterns, particularly across nonprofit and for-profit hospices. The purpose of this study was to examine potential differences in the staffing patterns of for-profit and nonprofit hospices. SUBJECTS AND DESIGN: Using the 2006 Medicare Provider of Services (POS) survey, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis of staffing patterns within Medicare-certified hospices operating in the United States in 2006. In bivariate and multivariable analyses, we examined differences in staffing patterns measured by the existence of a full range of interdisciplinary staff (defined as having at least 1 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in each of 4 disciplines ascertained by the survey: physician, nursing, psychosocial, and home health aide) and by the professional mix of staff within each discipline. RESULTS: For-profit hospices had a winder range of paid staff but there were no differences by ownerships when volunteer staff were included. For-profit hospices had significantly fewer registered nurse FTEs as a proportion of nursing staff, fewer medical social worker FTEs as a proportion of psychosocial staff, and fewer clinician FTEs as a proportion of total staff (p values <0.05). Compared to nonprofit hospices, for-profit and government-owned hospices also used proportionally fewer volunteer FTEs. CONCLUSIONS: Hospice staffing patterns differed significantly by ownership type. Future research should evaluate the impact of these differences on quality of care and satisfaction among patients and families using hospice.

Benefits and challenges in use of a standardized symptom assessment instrument in hospice.

BACKGROUND: Hospices are now mandated to perform routine quality assessment under the final Medicare Hospice Conditions of Participation, creating an opportunity to explore standardized approaches to monitoring hospice quality. OBJECTIVE: We report hospice staff experiences using a standardized symptom assessment instrument, the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS), in a pilot study designed to develop and test quality measures on symptom management. Use of the ESAS illustrates the benefits and challenges arising with standardized symptom assessment for quality monitoring in hospice. METHODS: We interviewed 24 individuals representing 8 hospices involved with the National Association for Home Care & Hospice Quality Assessment Collaborative, which pilot tested the ESAS as a source of standardized data for quality assessment. Transcripts were analyzed using the constant comparative method. RESULTS: Participants reported benefits and challenges with the ESAS. Benefits were that the ESAS was a brief and easy tool that identified areas of concern, engaged patients in symptom assessment, and monitored symptom changes over time. Additionally, the ESAS was viewed as a useful teaching tool for less experienced staff. Challenges included lack of clarity about inclusion rules and frequency of assessments; difficulty interpreting the numeric symptom rating scale, difficulty incorporating patient preferences with symptoms, and a sense that the use of standard assessment instruments was "unnatural." DISCUSSION: Recommendations to promote effective use of ESAS data for quality monitoring of hospice care include standardizing implementation procedures, adding patients' preferences to the ESAS form, and staff education to enhance comfort with the instrument before implementation.

The door-to-balloon alliance for quality: who joins national collaborative efforts and why?

BACKGROUND: The Door-to-Balloon (D2B) Alliance is a collaborative effort of more than 900 hospitals aimed at improving D2B times for ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Although such collaborative efforts are increasingly used to promote improvement, little is known about the types of health care organizations that enroll and their motivations to participate. METHODS: To examine the types of hospitals enrolled and reasons for enrollment, a cross-sectional study was conducted of 915 D2B Alliance hospitals and 654 hospitals that did not join the D2B Alliance. Data were obtained from the American Hospital Association's Annual Survey of Hospitals and a Web-based survey completed by 797 enrolled hospitals (response rate, 87%). Chi-square statistics were used to examine statistical associations, and qualitative data analysis was used to characterize reported reasons for enrolling. RESULTS: Hospitals that enrolled in the D2B Alliance were significantly (p values < .05) more likely to be larger, nonprofit (versus for-profit), and teaching (versus nonteaching) hospitals. Earlier- versus later-enrolling hospitals were more likely to have key recommended strategies already in place at the time of enrollment. Improving quality and "doing the right thing" were commonly reported reasons for enrolling; however, hospitals also reported improving market share, meeting regulatory and accreditation requirements, and enhancing reputation as primary reasons for joining. CONCLUSIONS: The findings highlight the underlying goals of organizations to improve their position in the external environment--including economic, regulatory, accreditation, and professional environments. Designing quality improvement collaborative efforts to appeal to these goals may be an important strategy for enhancing participation and, in turn, increasing the uptake of evidence-based innovations.