Investigating the Impact of Community Volunteerism on the Mental Health of Medical Students.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to analyze the impact of community service on the mental health of medical students through their perception of stress. METHODS: The 10-item Perceived Stress Scale was used to measure the stress levels of 82 medical students over a 3-month period. Additional survey questions gauged students' weekly volunteer experiences in clinical and nonclinical settings and their perceived effects on stress and quality of life. RESULTS: Results found an inverse relationship between the number of clinical volunteer hours and perceived stress (P = .0497). Nonclinical and total volunteer hours were correlated with both reduced perceived stress levels (nonclinical P = .0095, total P = .0052) and better quality of life (nonclinical P = .0301, total P = .0136). All individual perceived stress scores fell into the low or moderate stress ranges of the Perceived Stress Scale per the week-to-week analysis. CONCLUSION: The preliminary results raised important research questions about the impact of volunteering on medical student perceived stress. As medical students face higher levels of stress in comparison to the general population, it is exceedingly important to determine methods to decrease their risk of compromising their mental health. This study may aid in decision-making and research in favor of or against offering community service opportunities as part of the core medical education curriculum.

A Novel Approach to Characterizing Readmission Patterns Following Hospitalization for Ambulatory Care-Sensitive Conditions.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the frequency, patterns, and determinants of readmissions among patients initially hospitalized for an ambulatory care-sensitive condition (ACSC). The degree to which hospitalizations in close temporal proximity cluster has also not been studied. Readmission patterns involving clustering likely reflect different underlying determinants than the same number of readmissions more evenly spaced. OBJECTIVE: To characterize readmission rates, patterns, and predictors among patients initially hospitalized with an ACSC. DESIGN: Retrospective analysis of the 2010-2014 Nationwide Readmissions Database. PARTICIPANTS: Non-pregnant patients aged 18-64 years old during initial ACSC hospitalization and who were discharged alive (N = 5,007,820). MAIN MEASURES: Frequency and pattern of 30-day all-cause readmissions, grouped as 0, 1, 2+ non-clustered, and 2+ clustered readmissions. KEY RESULTS: Approximately 14% of patients had 1 readmission, 2.4% had 2+ non-clustered readmissions, and 3.3% patients had 2+ clustered readmissions during the 270-day follow-up. A higher Elixhauser Comorbidity Index was associated with increased risk for all readmission groups, namely with adjusted odds ratios (AORs) ranging from 1.12 to 3.34. Compared to patients aged 80 years and older, those in younger age groups had increased risk of 2+ non-clustered and 2+ clustered readmissions (AOR range 1.27-2.49). Patients with chronic versus acute ACSCs had an increased odds ratio of all readmission groups compared to those with 0 readmissions (AOR range 1.37-2.69). CONCLUSIONS: Among patients with 2+ 30-day readmissions, factors were differentially distributed between clustered and non-clustered readmissions. Identifying factors that could predict future readmission patterns can inform primary care in the prevention of readmissions following ACSC-related hospitalizations.

Estimating the obstetric co-morbidity burden using administrative data: The impact of the pregnancy-related assessment window.

BACKGROUND: Despite increased research using large administrative databases to identify determinants of maternal morbidity and mortality, the extent to which these databases capture obstetric co-morbidities is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact that the time window used to assess obstetric co-morbidities has on the completeness of ascertainment of those co-morbidities. METHODS: We conducted a five-year analysis of inpatient hospitalisations of pregnant women from 2010-2014 using the Nationwide Readmissions Database. For each woman, using discharge diagnoses, we identified 24 conditions used to create the Obstetric Comorbidity Index. Using various assessment windows for capturing obstetric co-morbidities, including the delivery hospitalisation only and all weekly windows from 7 to 280 days, we calculated the frequency and rate of each co-morbidity and the degree of underascertainment of the co-morbidity. Under each scenario, and for each co-morbidity, we also calculated the all-cause, 30-day readmission rate. RESULTS: There were over 3 million delivery hospitalisations from 2010 to 2014 included in this analysis. Compared with a full 280-day window, assessment of obstetric co-morbidities using only diagnoses made during the delivery hospitalisation would result in failing to identify over 35% of cases of chronic renal disease, 28.5% cases in which alcohol abuse was documented during pregnancy, and 23.1% of women with pulmonary hypertension. For seven other co-morbidities, at least 1 in 20 women with that condition would have been missed with exclusive reliance on the delivery hospitalisation for co-morbidity diagnoses. Not only would reliance on delivery hospitalisations have resulted in missed cases of co-morbidities, but for many conditions, estimates of readmission rates for women with obstetric co-morbidities would have been underestimated. CONCLUSIONS: An increasing proportion of maternal and child health research is based on large administrative databases. This study provides data that facilitate the assessment of the degree to which important obstetric co-morbidities may be underascertained when using these databases.

Exploring classification of birth defects severity in national hospital discharge databases compared to an active surveillance program.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the extent to which the severity of birth defects could be differentiated using severity of illness (SOI) and risk of mortality (ROM) measures available in national discharge databases. METHODS: Data from the 2012-14 National Inpatient Sample (NIS) was used to identify hospitalizations with one or more major birth defects reported annually to the National Birth Defects Prevention Network using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Edition, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) diagnosis codes. Each hospitalization also contained a 4-level SOI and 4-level ROM classification measure. For each birth defect and for each individual birth defect-related ICD-9-CM code, we calculated mean and median SOI and ROM, the proportion of hospitalizations in each level of SOI and ROM, the inpatient mortality rate, and level of agreement between various existing or derived severity proxies in the NIS and the Texas Birth Defects Registry (TBDR). RESULTS: Mean SOI ranged from 1.5 (cleft lip alone) to 3.7 (single ventricle), and mean ROM ranged from 1.1 (cleft lip alone) to 3.9 (anencephaly). As a group, critical congenital heart defects had the highest average number of co-occurring defects, mean SOI, and ROM, whereas orofacial and genitourinary defects had the lowest SOI and ROM. We found strong levels of agreement between TBDR severity classifications and NIS severity classifications defined using Level 3 or 4 SOI or ROM Level 3 or 4. CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary investigation demonstrated how severity indices of birth defects could be differentiated and compared to a severity algorithm of an existing surveillance program.

From primary care to the revolving door of hospital readmission: Relevance of Geoffrey Rose's call for a population strategy.

The high-risk strategy in prevention has remained the preferred approach in health care. High-profile research predominantly emphasizes specific high-risk subgroups such as those who have extremely high cholesterol and super-utilizers of emergency departments. Dr. Geoffrey Rose's alternative population approach, though well established in principle, has failed to come to fruition in primary care research, aside from a few exceptions. The population approach extends intervention efforts to more moderate-risk people, attempting to shift the overall distribution in a positive direction, effecting change in more of the population. Despite requiring more initial investment due to the larger target group, the health-related gains and downstream cost savings through a population strategy may yield greater long-term cost-effectiveness than the high-risk strategy. We describe the example of extending prevention efforts from super-utilizers (e.g. those with ≥3 readmissions per year) to include those who readmit in moderate frequency (1-2 per year) in terms of potential hospital days and associated medical costs averted.

Emergency Department High Utilizers among Family Medicine Patients.

BACKGROUND: Increases in emergency department (ED) use are contributing to inefficient health care spending and becoming a public health concern. Previous studies have identified characteristics of ED high utilizers aimed at designing interventions to improve efficiency. We aim to expand on these findings in a family medicine outpatient population. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective analysis on a population of ED high utilizers, defined as those who had been to the ED 6 or more times in 1 year, including medical and demographic characteristics from 2015 to 2017. RESULTS: Compared with our source population, ED high utilizers were most commonly female, African American, or single and insured by Medicare or Medicaid. They did not have a chronic pain or substance use diagnosis, but more than half had a psychiatric condition. The only demographic characteristic that changed over time was home location from 2015 to 2017 (P < .05). Less than 10% of ED high utilizers were the same over 3 years. CONCLUSIONS: Most demographic characteristics did not change over time, whereas individuals did change. Interventions aimed at improving efficiency of ED use should be geared toward unchanging characteristics rather than individuals. The only demographic characteristic that did change significantly was home location that correlated in time with the availability of new EDs providing support for a theory of supply-sensitive ED use.

Primary Care Tracks in Medical Schools.

INTRODUCTION: With the estimated future shortage of primary care physicians there is a need to recruit more medical students into family medicine. Longitudinal programs or primary care tracks in medical schools have been shown to successfully recruit students into primary care. The aim of this study was to examine the characteristics of primary care tracks in departments of family medicine. METHODS: Data were collected as part of the 2016 CERA Family Medicine Clerkship Director Survey. The survey included questions regarding the presence and description of available primary care tracks as well as the clerkship director's perception of impact. The survey was distributed via email to 125 US and 16 Canadian family medicine clerkship directors. RESULTS: The response rate was 86%. Thirty-five respondents (29%) reported offering a longitudinal primary care track. The majority of tracks select students on a competitive basis, are directed by family medicine educators, and include a wide variety of activities. Longitudinal experience in primary care ambulatory settings and primary care faculty mentorship were the most common activities. Almost 70% of clerkship directors believe there is a positive impact on students entering primary care. CONCLUSIONS: The current tracks are diverse in what they offer and could be tailored to the missions of individual medical schools. The majority of clerkship directors reported that they do have a positive impact on students entering primary care.

Institutional NIH Research Funding and a Culture of Support for Family Medicine-Their Relationship to Family Medicine Specialty Choice.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The United States suffers from a low proportion of medical students pursuing family medicine (FM). Our objective was to examine institutional characteristics consistent with a focus on National Institutes of Health (NIH) research, institutional support for FM education, and the proportion of medical students choosing FM. METHODS: The 2015 CERA Survey of Family Medicine Clerkship Directors was merged with institutional NIH funding data from 2014 and medical student specialty choice in 2015. Institutional educational support was operationalized as (1) clerkship director's perception of medical school environment toward FM, and (2) amount of negative comments about FM made by faculty in other departments. The outcome was the percentage of students selecting FM. Bivariate statistics were computed. RESULTS: As NIH funding increases, the proportion of students entering FM decreases (r=-.22). Institutions with higher NIH funding had lower clerkship director perceptions of medical school support toward FM (r=-.38). Among private institutions, the negative correlation between NIH funding and the proportion of students entering FM strengthens to r=-.48, P=.001. As perceptions of support for FM increase, the proportion of students entering FM increase (r=.47). Among private schools, perceptions of support toward family medicine was strongly positively correlated with the proportion of students entering FM (r=.72, P=.001). CONCLUSIONS: Higher institutional NIH funding is associated with less support for FM and lower proportions of students choosing FM. These issues appear to be even more influential in private medical schools. Understanding how to integrate the goals of NIH-level research and increasing primary care workforce so that both can be achieved is the next challenge.

Job Satisfaction Among Academic Family Physicians.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Family physicians report some of the highest rates of burnout among their physician peers. Over the past few years, this rate has increased and work-life balance has decreased. In academic medicine, many report lack of career satisfaction and have considered leaving academia. Our aim was to explore the factors that contribute to job satisfaction and burnout in faculty members in a family medicine department. METHODS: Six academic family medicine clinics were invited to participate in this qualitative study. Focus groups were conducted to allow for free-flowing, rich dialogue between the moderator and the physician participants. Transcripts were analyzed in a systematic manner by independent investigators trained in grounded theory. The constant comparison method was used to code and synthesize the qualitative data. RESULTS: Six main themes emerged: time (62%), benefits (9%), resources (8%), undervalue (8%), physician well-being (7%), and practice demand (6%). Within the main theme of time, four subthemes emerged: administrative tasks/emails (61%), teaching (17%), electronic medical records (EMR) requirements (13%), and patient care (9%). CONCLUSIONS: Academic family physicians believe that a main contributor to job satisfaction is time. They desire more resources, like staff, to assist with increasing work demands. Overall, they enjoy the academic primary care environment. Future directions would include identifying the specific time restraints that prevent them from completing tasks, the type of staff that would assist with the work demands, and the life stressors the physicians are experiencing.