Measuring the academic value of academic medical centers: describing a methodology for developing an evaluation model at one Academic Medical Center

ABSTRACT Objectives: The aim of this study was to determine the involvement of emergency medicine physicians at academic medical centers across the United States as well as their background training, roles in the hospital, and compensation if applicable for time dedicated to preparedness. Methods: A structured survey was delivered by means of email to 109 Chairs of Emergency Medicine across the United States at academic medical centers. Unique email links were provided to track response rate and entered into REDCap database. Descriptive statistics were obtained, including roles in emergency preparedness, training, and compensation. Results: Forty-four of the 109 participants responded, resulting in a response rate of 40.4%. The majority held an administrative role in emergency preparedness. Formal training for the position (participants could select more than 1) included various avenues of education such as emergency medical services fellowship or in-person or online courses. Of the participants, most (93.18%) strongly agreed that it was important to have a physician with expertise in disaster medicine assisting with preparedness. Conclusions: The majority of responding academic medical center participants have taken an active role in hospital emergency preparedness. Education for the roles varied though, often consisted of courses from emergency management agencies. Volunteering their time for compensation was noted by 27.5%.

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Epidemiology of sepsis syndrome in 8 academic medical centers. Academic Medical Center Consortium Sepsis Project Working Group

JAMA ◽

10.1001/jama.278.3.234 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 278 (3) ◽

pp. 234-240 ◽

Cited By ~ 72

Author(s):

K. E. Sands

Keyword(s):

Working Group ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Sepsis Syndrome ◽

Academic Medical Centers ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical

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Can Pediatric Training Manage in Managed Care?

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.96.6.1143 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 96 (6) ◽

pp. 1143-1145

Author(s):

Laurel K. Leslie

Keyword(s):

Managed Care ◽

San Francisco ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

University Of California ◽

Academic Medical Centers ◽

Full Time ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical ◽

The University

On January 18, 1995, the University of California convened a special meeting to discuss the business operations of its five academic medical centers in San Francisco, Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Irvine. Because of the rapid developments occurring in the maturing and competitive managed care market in California, the academic medical centers are facing unprecedented financial pressures. Charles Townsend, of the accounting firm KPMG Peat Marwick, stated that the medical centers' staff would need to be cut by at least 2500 full-time equivalents, including physicians and nurses, by the year 1999. William Kerr, Director of the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, forecasted a comprehensive restructuring and streamlining of services. Jordan Cohen, president of the Association of American Medical Colleges, described the challenges facing these five academic medical centers and others like them as "truly seismic."1 The rise of managed care medical systems during the last 5 years has led many researchers to question whether the academic medical center will survive in its current state.2-6 Market forces are changing the provision of medical care at an extremely fast pace. By 1998, an estimated 60% of people living in US cities will be covered by managed care health plans. Fewer hospital admissions, shorter hospital stays, and decreased reimbursements associated with managed care have decreased hospitals' operating gains. Academic medical centers, such as those in California, are facing pressure to lower health care delivery costs. The probable decreases in Medicare and research funds under the current Congress also threaten the financial revenues of academic medical centers.

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Website Usability Analysis of United States Academic Medical Centers (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.27750 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan Gale ◽

Kameron Black ◽

Joshua David Calvano ◽

Edwin Lauritz Fundingsland Jr ◽

Deborah Lai ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Standard Deviation ◽

Standard Error ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Centers ◽

Content Quality ◽

Website Usability ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical

BACKGROUND Many healthcare organizations are now tasked with providing web-based health resources and information. Usability refers to the ease of user experience on a website. Our objective was to adapt pre-existing usability scoring systems for United States academic medical center websites, then apply this system to a sample for the purposes of testing this system and deriving insights from the results on potential areas of improvement. OBJECTIVE The primary aims of the study were to: 1) Adapt a pre-existing usability scoring methodology to academic medical centers; 2) apply and test this adapted usability scoring methodology on a sample set of academic medical center website and; 3) derive recommendations from these results on potential areas of improvements for our sample of academic medical centers websites. METHODS All website usability testing took place from 1 June 2020 to 15 December 2020. We replicated a methodology developed in previous literature and applied it to academic medical centers. Our sample included 73 U.S. academic medical centers. Usability was split into four broad categories: Accessibility (ability of those with low levels of computer literacy to access and navigate hospital’s Web presence), Marketing (ability to be found through search engines, examining the relevance of descriptions to the links provided), Content Quality (grammar, frequency of info updates, material relevancy, and readability), and Technology (download speed, quality of the programming code, and website infrastructure). Using these tools, we scored each website in each category. The composite of key factors in each category contributed to an overall “General Usability” score for each website. An overall score was then calculated by applying a weighted percentage across all factors and used for the final Overall Usability ranking. RESULTS The category with the highest average score was Technology, with a 0.82 (standard deviation of 0.068, standard error of 0.008). The lowest-performing category was Content Quality, with an average of 0.22 (standard deviation of 0.069, standard error of 0.008). CONCLUSIONS Our data suggests that Technology, on average, was the highest scored variable amongst academic medical center websites. Because website functionality is essential to a user’s experience, it is justified that academic medical centers invest in optimal website performance. The overall lowest scored variable was Content Quality. A potential reason for this may be that academic medical center websites are usually larger in size, making it difficult to monitor the increased quantity of content. An easy way to improve this variable is to conduct more frequent website audits to assess readability, grammar, and relevancy. Marketing is another area in which these organizations have potential for improvement. Our recommendation is that organizations utilize search engine optimization techniques to improve their online visibility and discoverability.

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Readability Level of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Notices of Privacy Practices Utilized by Academic Medical Centers

Evaluation & the Health Professions ◽

10.1177/0163278705281080 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 28 (4) ◽

pp. 479-486 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Steven Walfish ◽

Keely M. Watkins

Keyword(s):

Health Insurance ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Reading Level ◽

Academic Medical Centers ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical ◽

Assessment And Treatment ◽

Health Insurance Portability

Recently enacted Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act legislation requires health care professionals to provide patients with a “Notice of Privacy Practices” (NPP) document as part of their informed consent process to participate in assessment and treatment. We were interested in the readability of these forms. We attempted to find a NPP from an academic medical center in each state plus the District of Columbia where documents were placed on the institution's Web site. Documents were obtained from 40 jurisdictions and were then analyzed utilizing two measures of readability. The majority (65%) of these documents were written beyond the 12thgrade reading level, and almost the entire sample (90%) fell in the difficult range of reading ease. Academic medical centers have an ethical obligation to improve the readability of these documents and should do so to improve clinical practice and reduce liability.

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Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Clinical Trial Oversight at a Major Academic Medical Center: Approach of Michigan Medicine

Clinical Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1093/cid/ciaa560 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 71 (16) ◽

pp. 2187-2190 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kayte Spector-Bagdady ◽

Peter D R Higgins ◽

Keith D Aaronson ◽

Judy Birk ◽

Kevin R Flaherty ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Media Coverage ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Research Integrity ◽

Research Issues ◽

Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials ◽

Subject Recruitment ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical ◽

Trial Oversight

Abstract Clinicians, eager to offer the best care in the absence of guiding data, have provided patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) diverse clinical interventions. This usage has led to perceptions of efficacy of some interventions that, while receiving media coverage, lack robust evidence. Moving forward, randomized controlled clinical trials are necessary to ensure that clinicians can treat patients effectively during this outbreak and the next. To do so, academic medical centers must address 2 key research issues: (1) how to effectively and efficiently determine which trials have the best chance of benefiting current and future patients and (2) how to establish a transparent and ethical process for subject recruitment while maintaining research integrity and without overburdening patients or staff. We share here the current methods used by Michigan Medicine to address these issues.

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Learning Experiences Within Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Residency Programs in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Open Forum Infectious Diseases ◽

10.1093/ofid/ofz387 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 6 (10) ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan C Cho ◽

Matthew P Crotty ◽

Wesley D Kufel ◽

Elias B Chahine ◽

Amelia K Sofjan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Infectious Diseases ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Travel Medicine ◽

The United States ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Residency Programs ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical

Abstract Background Pharmacists with residency training in infectious diseases (ID) optimize antimicrobial therapy outcomes in patients and support antimicrobial stewardship (AS) programs. Although most ID residencies are accredited and assessed by certain standards, the degree to which these programs are similar is not known. Methods A 19-item, cross-sectional, multicentered, electronic survey was distributed via e-mail to pharmacy residency program directors (RPDs) of all 101 second-year postgraduate (PGY-2) ID residency programs in the United States. Results Survey responses were collected from 71 RPDs (70.3%); 64.8% were associated with an academic medical center and 97.2% focused primarily in adult ID. Rotations in the microbiology laboratory, adult AS, and adult ID consult were required in 98.6% of residency programs. Only 28.2% of responding programs required pediatric AS and pediatric ID consult rotations. Programs at academic medical centers were more likely to offer immunocompromised host ID consult (P = .003), pediatric ID consult (P = .006), and hospital epidemiology (P = .047) rotations but less frequently offered outpatient AS (P = .003), viral hepatitis clinics (P = .001), and travel medicine clinics (P = .007) rotations compared to programs at nonacademic medical centers. Residents were frequently involved in AS committees (97.2%), pharmacokinetic dosing of antimicrobials (83.1%), precepting pharmacy trainees (80.3%), and performing research projects (91.5%). Conclusions The PGY-2 ID pharmacy residency programs demonstrated consistency in required adult ID consult, antimicrobial management activities, committee service, and teaching and research opportunities. Pediatric experiences were less common. The PGY-2 ID residency programs prepare pharmacists to become antimicrobial stewards for adult patients.

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Collaborative Comanagement Between Neurohospitalists and Internal Medicine Hospitalists Decreases Provider Costs and Enhances Satisfaction With Neurology Care at an Academic Medical Center

The Neurohospitalist ◽

10.1177/1941874417735173 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 74-81

Author(s):

James G. Greene

Keyword(s):

Positive Impact ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Hospital Medicine ◽

Professional Services ◽

Care Model ◽

Future Health ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical ◽

Potential Benefits

Background and Purpose: The majority of academic medical centers are moving to a neurohospitalist model of care for hospital neurology coverage. Potential benefits over a more traditional academic model of patient care include greater expertise in acute neurologic disease, increased efficiency, and improved availability to patients, providers, and learners. Despite these perceived advantages, switching to a neurohospitalist model can come at substantial financial cost, so finding ways to maximize the positive impact of a limited number of neurohospitalists is very important to the future health of academic neurology departments. Over the past 7 years, we have implemented a model for inpatient neurological care based on an intimate collaborative relationship between the neurology and hospital medicine services at our main academic hospital. Our goal was to optimize the value of care by decreasing cost while improving quality. Methods: Cost and revenue associated with professional services was evaluated on a yearly basis. As part of ongoing quality improvement efforts, yearly surveys were administered to referring providers during the transition to a collaborative care model in which NHs and medicine hospitalists comanage neurology inpatients. Results: Net operating loss was dramatically decreased upon transition to the new care model. Concomitantly, there was a robust positive impact on perception of overall quality, timeliness, and communication skills of neurology services. Conclusions: Collaborative comanagement is an effective strategy to improve overall satisfaction with neurology services at a tertiary academic medical center while maintaining financial viability.

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An Academic Medical Center’s Learners’ Perceptions of Health Disparities

PRiMER ◽

10.22454/primer.2018.867250 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

Author(s):

Joyce E. Balls-Berry ◽

Eddie Greene ◽

Jennifer McCormick ◽

Onelis Quirindongo-Cedeno ◽

Karen Weavers ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Health Disparities ◽

Health Care Providers ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Care Providers ◽

Unequal Treatment ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Patient Groups

Introduction: Lack of health equity ultimately leads to unequal treatment of diverse patients and contributes to the growing disparities seen in national health. Academic medical centers should consider providing health care providers and biomedical researchers training on how to identify and address health disparities. Methods: The authors led an introductory health disparities course for graduate students and research and clinical fellows at an academic medical center in the Midwest. We compared pre/postcourse assessments to determine changes in learners’ perceptions and knowledge of health disparities using an unpaired analysis to permit inclusion of responses provided only at baseline. Results: Sixty-two learners completed preassessment, with 56 completing the postassessment (90%). In the postcourse assessment, learners reported an increase in knowledge of disparities and had changes in their perceptions of health disparities linked to treatment of different patient groups based on demographic characteristics. There was a statistically significant difference in learners’ perceptions of how patients are treated based on gender identity (P=0.02) and sexual orientation (P=0.04). Conclusions: The results detail how an academic medical center can provide training on health disparities for diverse learners. This study underscores the influence of health disparities from the perspective of learners who conduct biomedical research and patient care. This course serves a model for introductory-level health disparities courses.

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Good IT Requires Good Communication

Cases on Healthcare Information Technology for Patient Care Management ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2671-3.ch007 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 122-125

Author(s):

Charles H Andrus ◽

Mark Gaynor

Keyword(s):

Medical School ◽

Medical Center ◽

Academic Support ◽

Academic Medical Center ◽

Support Staff ◽

Good Communication ◽

Medical Centers ◽

Academic Medical ◽

Organizational Differences

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) in academic medical centers often have additional complexity to them due to structural and organizational differences. Often the hospital operates independent of the medical school such as the physicians often work for the medical school, while the nurses and other ancillary departments work for the hospital. Such differences require special consideration when making changes to an EMR. The case study concerns an academic medical center where there are two ways to access the EMR. One methodology is to use a clinical computer on clinical floors within the hospital. A second methodology is the use of Citrix servers to access the EMR. Due to organizational differences, the EMR users access the system via two separate sets of Citrix servers. The hospital’s support staff controls one set of Citrix servers and the academic support staff controls the other set. Physicians and mid-level providers utilize the academic Citrix servers, but nursing and other ancillary departments use the hospital’s Citrix servers. With the servers controlled by separate teams, careful coordination is needed to ensure uniformity across the servers for a consistent user experience.

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