Customising Health Literacy Campaigns for Organ Donation and Transplantation

The organ shortage and the increasing demand for organs are universal, worldwide challenges. Health literacy is a powerful tool that can help to increase awareness about organ donation and transplantation on a large scale and to encourage and sustain support for organ donation. The unique perspectives, experiences, and expectations of medical students, renal patients, and hospital administrative staff across the UK, Netherlands, and Spain on the topic of health literacy (HL) campaigns regarding deceased organ donation (DOD) were recorded in a cross-cultural, qualitative study. Focus group discussions enabled participants to express their views on existing HL campaigns and to propose novel pathways for future campaigns.

Deficits in hospital care among clinically vulnerable children aged 0 to 4 years during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: To quantify deficits in hospital care for clinically vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design: Birth cohort in Hospital Episode Statistics (HES). Setting: NHS hospitals in England. Study population: All children aged <5 years with a birth recorded in hospital administrative data (January 2010 to March 2021). Main exposure: Clinical vulnerability defined by a chronic health condition, preterm birth (<37 weeks gestation) or low birthweight (<2500g). Main outcomes: Deficits in care defined by predicted rates for 2020, estimated from 2015-2019, minus observed rates per 1000 child years during the pandemic (March 2020-2021). Results: Of 3,813,465 children, 17.7% (1 in 6) were clinically vulnerable (9.5% born preterm or low birthweight, 10.3% had a chronic condition). Deficits in hospital care during the pandemic were much higher for clinically vulnerable children than peers: respectively, outpatient attendances (314 versus 73 per 1000 child years), planned admissions (55 versus 10), and unplanned admissions (105 versus 79). Clinically vulnerable children accounted for 50.1% of the deficit in outpatient attendances, 55.0% in planned admissions, and 32.8% in unplanned hospital admissions. During the pandemic, weekly rates of planned care returned to pre-pandemic levels for infants with chronic conditions but not older children. Deficits in care differed by ethnic group and level of deprivation. Virtual outpatient attendances increased from 3.2% to 24.8% during the pandemic. Conclusion: 1 in 6 clinically vulnerable children accounted for one-third to one half of the deficit in hospital care during the pandemic.

Utilisation of tracheostomy in patients with COVID-19 in England: patient characteristics, timing and outcomes

Objectives: We aimed to characterise the use of tracheostomy procedures for all COVID-19 critical care patients in England and to understand how patient factors and timing of tracheostomy affected outcomes. Design: A retrospective observational study using exploratory analysis of hospital administrative data. Setting: All 500 National Health Service hospitals in England. Participants: All hospitalised COVID-19 patients aged ≥ 18 years in England between March 1st and October 31st, 2020 were included. Main outcomes and measures: This was a retrospective exploratory analysis using the Hospital Episode Statistics administrative dataset. Multilevel modelling was used to explore the relationship between demographic factors, comorbidity and use of tracheostomy and the association between tracheostomy use, tracheostomy timing and the outcomes. Results: In total, 2,200 hospitalised COVID-19 patients had a tracheostomy. Tracheostomy utilisation varied substantially across the study period, peaking in April-June 2020. In multivariable modelling, for those admitted to critical care, tracheostomy was most common in those aged 40-79 years, in males and in people of Black and Asian ethnic groups and those with a history of cerebrovascular disease. In critical care patients, tracheostomy was associated with lower odds of mortality (OR: 0.514 (95% CI 0.443 to 0.596), but greater length of stay (OR: 41.143 (95% CI 30.979 to 54.642). In patients that survived, earlier timing of tracheostomy (≤ 14 days post admission to critical care) was significantly associated with shorter length of stay. Conclusions: Tracheostomy is safe and advantageous for critical care COVID-19 patients. Early tracheostomy may be associated with better outcomes, such as shorter length of stay, compared to late tracheostomy.

Heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient expenses: an empirical analysis of diseases grouping basing on conditions’ complexity and urgency

Background Multiple pro-competition policies were implemented during the new round of healthcare reform in China. Differences in conditions’ complexity and urgency across diseases associating with various degrees of information asymmetry and choice autonomy in the process of care provision, would lead to heterogeneous effects of competition on healthcare expenses. However, there are limited studies to explore it. This study aims to examine the heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient expenses basing on disease grouping according to conditions’ complexity and urgency. Methods Collecting information from discharge data of inpatients and hospital administrative data of Sichuan province in China, we selected representative diseases. K-means clustering was used to group the selected diseases and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) was calculated based on the predicted patient flow to measure the hospital competition. The log-linear multivariate regression model was used to examine the heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient expenses. Results We selected 19 representative diseases with significant burdens (more than 1.1 million hospitalizations). The selected diseases were divided into three groups, including diseases with highly complex conditions, diseases with urgent conditions, and diseases with less complex and less urgent conditions. For diseases with highly complex conditions and diseases with urgent conditions, the estimated coefficients of HHI are mixed in the direction and statistical significance in the identical regression model at the 5% level. For diseases with less complex and less urgent conditions, the coefficients of HHI are all positive, and almost all of them significant at the 5% level. Conclusions We found heterogeneous effects of hospital competition on inpatient expenses across disease groups: hospital competition does not play an ideal role in reducing inpatient expenses for diseases with highly complex conditions and diseases with urgent conditions, but it has a significant effect in reducing inpatient expenses of diseases with less complex and less urgent conditions. Our study offers implications that the differences in condition’s complexity and urgency among diseases would lead to different impacts of hospital competition, which would be given full consideration when designing the pro-competition policy in the healthcare delivery system to achieve the desired goal.

AOA ophthalmology and otolaryngology program closures as a model to highlight challenges of maintaining GME in high need areas

Context While 90% of former American Osteopathic Association (AOA) residency programs transitioned to Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) accreditation, surgical subspecialty programs such as ear, nose, and throat (ENT, 62%) and ophthalmology (47%) struggled to gain accreditation. Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine (DOs) actively participate in serving underserved communities, and the loss of AOA surgical specialty programs may decrease access to surgical care in rural and nonmetropolitan areas. Objectives To determine the challenges faced by former AOA-accredited surgical subspecialty programs during the transition to ACGME accreditation, particularly ENT and ophthalmology programs in underresourced settings. Methods A directory of former AOA ENT and Ophthalmology programs was obtained from the American Osteopathic Colleges of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AOCOO-HNS). A secured survey was sent out to 16 eligible ENT and ophthalmology program directors (PDs). The survey contained both quantitative and qualitative aspects to help assess why these programs did not pursue or failed to receive ACGME accreditation. Results Twelve of 16 eligible programs responded, com-prising six ophthalmology and six ENT PDs. Among the respondents, 83% did not pursue accreditation (6 ophthalmology and 4 ENT programs), and 17% were unsuccessful in achieving accreditation despite pursuing accreditation (2 ENT programs). Across 12 respondents, 7 (58%) cited a lack of hospital/administrative support and 5 (42%) cited excessive costs and lack of faculty support as reasons for not pursuing or obtaining ACGME accreditation. Conclusions The survey results reflect financial issues associated with rural hospitals. A lack of hospital/administrative support and excessive costs to transition to the ACGME were key drivers in closures of AOA surgical specialty programs. In light of these results, we have four recommendations for various stakeholders, including PDs, Designated Institutional Officials, hospital Chief Medical Officers, and health policy experts. These recommendations include expanding Teaching Health Center Graduate Medical Education to surgical subspecialties, identifying and learning from surgical fields such as urology that fared well during the transition to ACGME, addressing the lack of institutional commitment and the prohibitive costs of maintaining ACGME-accredited subspecialty programs in underresourced settings, and reconsidering the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) pool approach to physician reimbursement.

Measuring patient safety in New Zealand public hospitals

<p>In New Zealand the Ministry of Health recognises quality of care as an integral part of a high performing health system and identifies patient safety as one of the key dimensions of quality. Over recent years a greater emphasis has been placed on improving patient safety mostly as a result of increased awareness around the frequency of medical error and resulting economic cost. However tools used to measure patient safety are limited. In particular the use of hospital administrative data to measure patient safety is scarce and existing safety measures often ignore one of the major issues confronting comparative analyses of hospital safety, risk adjustment to control for the differences in populations hospitals serve. The objective of this research is to develop comparable measures of patient safety for New Zealand public hospitals. It uses risk adjustment strategies applied to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) with New Zealand hospital administrative data, the National Minimum Dataset 2001 to 2009. The research employs econometric techniques to address risk adjustment of the PSIs, utilising existing AHRQ models but adapting and re-estimating them with New Zealand administrative data. The findings from the research indicate that to use the AHRQ PSIs as measures of hospital patient safety in New Zealand, risk adjustment should first be employed to ensure measures are comparable across hospitals and over time. Overall, although the impact of risk adjustment appears to be minor, it has relevance and this should be recognised. Relative hospital performance is affected by risk adjustment. In particular, it has the greatest impact on those hospitals with poor rankings. The research takes us a step closer to being able to confidently measure patient safety and quality of care in New Zealand public hospitals in an innovative way.</p>

Measuring patient safety in New Zealand public hospitals

<p>In New Zealand the Ministry of Health recognises quality of care as an integral part of a high performing health system and identifies patient safety as one of the key dimensions of quality. Over recent years a greater emphasis has been placed on improving patient safety mostly as a result of increased awareness around the frequency of medical error and resulting economic cost. However tools used to measure patient safety are limited. In particular the use of hospital administrative data to measure patient safety is scarce and existing safety measures often ignore one of the major issues confronting comparative analyses of hospital safety, risk adjustment to control for the differences in populations hospitals serve. The objective of this research is to develop comparable measures of patient safety for New Zealand public hospitals. It uses risk adjustment strategies applied to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicators (PSIs) with New Zealand hospital administrative data, the National Minimum Dataset 2001 to 2009. The research employs econometric techniques to address risk adjustment of the PSIs, utilising existing AHRQ models but adapting and re-estimating them with New Zealand administrative data. The findings from the research indicate that to use the AHRQ PSIs as measures of hospital patient safety in New Zealand, risk adjustment should first be employed to ensure measures are comparable across hospitals and over time. Overall, although the impact of risk adjustment appears to be minor, it has relevance and this should be recognised. Relative hospital performance is affected by risk adjustment. In particular, it has the greatest impact on those hospitals with poor rankings. The research takes us a step closer to being able to confidently measure patient safety and quality of care in New Zealand public hospitals in an innovative way.</p>

Describing the burden of diphtheria in Canada from 2006 to 2017, using hospital administrative data and reportable disease data

Background: Canada has maintained a low incidence of toxigenic diphtheria since the 1990s, supported by continued commitment to publicly funded vaccination programs. Objective: To determine whether hospitalization data, complemented with notifiable disease data, can describe the toxigenic respiratory and cutaneous diphtheria burden in Canada, and to assess if Canada is meeting its diphtheria vaccine–preventable disease-reduction target of zero annual cases of locally transmitted respiratory diphtheria. Methods: Diphtheria-related hospital discharge data from 2006 to 2017 were extracted from the Discharge Abstract Database (DAD), and diphtheria case counts for the same period were retrieved from the Canadian Notifiable Disease Surveillance System (CNDSS), for descriptive analyses. As data from the province of Québec are not included in the DAD, CNDSS cases from Québec were excluded. Results: A total of 233 diphtheria-related hospitalizations were recorded in the DAD. Of these, diphtheria was the most responsible diagnosis in 23. Half the patients were male (52%), and 57% were 60 years and older. Central region (Ontario) accounted for the most discharge records (61%), followed by Prairie region (Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan; 23%). Cutaneous diphtheria accounted for 43% of records, and respiratory diphtheria accounted for 3%, with the remainder being other diphtheria complications or site unspecified. Two records with diphtheria as the most responsible diagnosis resulted in inpatient deaths. Eighteen cases of diphtheria were reported through CNDSS. Cases occurred in all age groups, with the largest proportions among those aged 20 to 59 years (39%) and those aged 19 years and younger (33%). Cases were only reported in the Prairie (89%) and West Coast (British Columbia; 11%) regions. Conclusion: Hospital administrative data are consistent with the low incidence of diphtheria reported in CNDSS, and a low burden of respiratory diphtheria in Canada. Although Canada appears to be on track to meet its disease-reduction target, information on endemic transmission is not available.