SAFE™ Initiative: A Step Closer to Positive Safety Culture and Improved Patient Experience.

Background Positive safety culture is a key characteristic of a high-reliability organization; it is the leading service excellence standard and highest priority of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. However, understanding the importance and impact of safety event reporting was limited at the MD Anderson campus in Sugar Land, Texas. Therefore, we implemented the Secure, Attentive, Focused, Engaged (SAFE™) initiative to create, foster, and continuously improve safety culture throughout the campus, with a secondary goal of impacting patient experience.

Evaluation and Improvement of Bottlenecking in a Multidisciplinary Oncology Clinic: An Electronic Medical Record Intervention.

Purpose: Clinic members reported slower patient flow in the mornings at a multidisciplinary oncology clinic. This study identified the causes of clinic bottlenecking via analysis of patient schedules and transit times, then corrected discrepancies through a quality improvement program.

Methods: Transit times were measured using tracking cards handed out at check-in, marked by each clinic member throughout the encounter, and collected upon discharge.

The Effect of a Comprehensive Care Transition Model on Cost and Utilization for Medically Complex Children With Cerebral Palsy.

Introduction: Our aim was to evaluate cost and acute care utilization related to an organized approach to care coordination and transitional care after major acute care hospitalization for children with medical complexities, including cerebral palsy.

Methods: A retrospective cohort of 32 patients from Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital (RJPBH) who received the Care Beyond the Bedside model was compared with 151 patients receiving standard care elsewhere across Missouri. Claims data (2007-2012) were obtained from MoHealthNet, Missouri's Medicaid program, for all children with moderate to severe cerebral palsy (defined using approximated Gross Motor Function Classification System levels) who had at least one hospital visit during the study period (N = 183).

The Association between Medicare Advantage Market Penetration and Diabetes in the United States.

The objective of this study is to explore the extent to which managed care market penetration in the United States is associated with the presence of chronic disease. Diabetes was selected as the chronic disease of interest due to its increasing prevalence as well as the disease management protocols that can lessen disease complications. We hypothesized that greater managed care market penetration would be associated with (1) lower prevalence of diabetes and (2) lower prevalence of diabetes-related comorbidities (DRCs) among diabetics.

Chronic Disease Prevalence and Medicare Advantage Market Penetration: Findings From the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey.

By March 2015, 30% of all Medicare beneficiaries were enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans. Research to date has not explored the impacts of MA market penetration on individual or population health outcomes. The primary objective of this study is to examine the relationships between MA market penetration and the beneficiary's portfolio of cardiometabolic diagnoses.