Variability in Implementation of Interventions Aimed at Reducing Readmissions Among Patients With Heart Failure: A Survey of Teaching Hospitals.

Purpose: To highlight teaching hospitals' efforts to reduce readmissions by describing interventions implemented to improve care transitions for heart failure (HF) patients and the variability in implemented HF-specific and care transition interventions.

Method: In 2012, the authors surveyed a network of 17 teaching hospitals to capture information about the number, type, stage of implementation, and structure of 4 HF-specific and 21 care transition (predischarge, bridging, and postdischarge) interventions implemented to reduce readmissions among patients with HF. The authors summarized data using descriptive statistics, including the mean number of interventions implemented and the frequency and stage of specific interventions, and descriptive plots of the structure of two common interventions (multidisciplinary rounds and follow-up telephone calls).

Commentary: Putting evidence to work: an expanded research agenda for academic medicine in the era of health care reform.

The historic Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (HR 3590) signed into law by President Obama has brought into sharp focus the need and opportunity for an expanded continuum of biomedical research. An updated research agenda must build on basic science and classical clinical investigation to place a more deliberate emphasis on patient- and population-outcome-oriented science and to apply science to help transform our current inefficient and expensive health care system into a more evidence-based system of effective, coordinated, safe, and patient-centered health care. If academic medicine is to play a leading role in this 21st-century transformation of health care through research, as it did in the 20th century, those in the community must think strategically about what needs to be done to be part of the solution for transforming the nation's health care delivery systems and prevention strategies, and the changes in institutional, organizational, and individual behaviors and values required to get there.

Roles and responsibilities of chief medical officers in member organizations of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

Purpose: To explore the roles of physician leaders who hold titles such as chief medical officer (CMO), vice president for medical affairs, and vice dean for clinical affairs in Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) member organizations, and to identify critical success factors for these positions.

Method: An Internet-based survey was submitted to 340 physician leaders in 281 AAMC member institutions. The survey posed questions regarding demographics, titles, reporting relationships, time commitments, scope of responsibility, accomplishments, and challenges related to recipients' positions, among other questions.

Resident duty hours reform: are we there yet?

In 2003, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) implemented resident duty hours restrictions to address growing concerns about medical errors and resident well-being. Many anticipated that resident duty hours restrictions would improve the quality and safety of care by minimizing the detrimental effects of fatigue on resident performance. Others were concerned that the fundamental clinical and educational principle of continuity of care would be lost or at least eroded, and that more frequent "hand-offs" might result in more clinical errors.

Future directions for academic practice plans: thoughts on organization and management from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Pennsylvania.

Academic practice plans have been challenged in recent years by increasing pressures for productivity and financial performance. Most practice plans began as relatively loose affiliations among the clinical departments associated with their respective medical schools, and such approaches were adequate in an earlier era. However, this model is not well suited to deal with the current and future challenges that face the practice plans, hospitals, and medical schools that comprise our academic medical centers.

Education in anesthesiology for the twenty-first century.

The growth and development of anesthesiology in the twenty-first century will likely depend on two major factors: our vision for the specialty in the future and our ability to implement an anesthesia education plan that will foster the achievement of that vision. The foundation of effective anesthesia education must be built on an understanding of the past and an analysis of the present but, most importantly, it must be shaped by our vision for the future. Focus on the future is essential, for it is remarkably easy to teach others as we were taught, or as we practice today.

Anesthesiologist board certification and patient outcomes.

Background: Board certification is often used as a surrogate indicator of provider competence, although few outcome studies have demonstrated its validity. The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of patients who underwent surgical procedures under the care of an anesthesiologist with or without board certification.

Methods: Medicare claims records for 144,883 patients in Pennsylvania who underwent general surgical or orthopedic procedures between 1991 and 1994 were used to determine provider-specific outcome rates adjusted to account for patient severity and case mix, and hospital characteristics.