Screening for social determinants of health (SDOH) has been mandated by health systems nationwide. However, a gap exists in closed-loop referral for care coordination between health care and social services. This article presents the framework of a technology-based project to facilitate closed-loop referral between health care and social service agencies in Greater Houston by leveraging and connecting the existing care coordination technology infrastructure.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Cardiomyopathy (CM) and other cardiovascular conditions (OCVs) are among the most frequent causes of pregnancy-related death in the United States.
Objectives: The purpose of this paper was to report demographic and clinical characteristics, preventability, contributing factors, and Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC) recommendations among pregnancy-related deaths with underlying causes of CM, OCVs, and the 2 combined (cardiovascular conditions, CV).
Methods: We analyzed pregnancy-related death data from MMRCs in 32 states, occurring during 2017 to 2019, with MMRC-determined underlying causes of CVs.
J Womens Health (Larchmt)
January 2025
Importance: Limited availability of inpatient pediatric services in rural regions has raised concerns about access, safety, and quality of hospital-based care for children. This may be particularly important for children with medical complexity (CMC).
Objectives: To describe differences in the availability of pediatric services at acute care hospitals where rural- and urban-residing CMC presented for hospitalization; identify rural-urban disparities in health care quality and in-hospital mortality; and determine whether the availability of pediatric services at index hospitals or the experience of interfacility transfer modified rural-urban differences in outcomes.
Since their inception, small area studies intended to measure health system performance have been challenged by concerns that regional variation in health care may be primarily explained by differences in patient health risk. Controlling for regional population differences depends on appropriate risk adjustment, but the adequacy of the methods used in early analyses was contested. A novel response to these concerns was the development of end-of-life cohorts by Dartmouth Atlas investigators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Objectives: Children with medical complexity (CMC) may be at a high risk of neurodevelopmental and mental health conditions given disease comorbidities and lived experiences. Little is known about the prevalence of these conditions at a population level. In this study, we estimated the prevalence of neurodevelopmental and mental health diagnoses in CMC relative to children without medical complexity and measured associations between these diagnoses in CMC and subsequent health care utilization and in-hospital mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNephrology (Carlton)
September 2024
Aim: To study COVID-19 vaccination status in kidney transplant recipients (KTRs), reasons for incomplete vaccination and the clinical impact of vaccination on patient outcomes.
Methods: A single-centre retrospective analysis of KTR (n = 543) conducted between 1970 and December 2022. Data included baseline demographics, number of vaccinations, reason for incomplete vaccination and patient outcomes following COVID-19 infection.
The clinical use of many potent anticancer agents is limited by their non-selective toxicity to healthy tissue. One of these examples is vorinostat (SAHA), a pan histone deacetylase inhibitor, which shows high cytotoxicity with limited discrimination for cancerous over healthy cells. In an attempt to improve tumor selectivity, we exploited the properties of cobalt(III) as a redox-active metal center through stabilization with cyclen and cyclam tetraazamacrocycles, masking the anticancer activity of SAHA and other hydroxamic acid derivatives to allow for the complex to reach the hypoxic microenvironment of the tumor.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHemorrhage has been a leading cause of pregnancy-related death in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System since 1987 when reporting began. Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System data from 2012 to 2019 were analyzed to describe pregnancy-related deaths from hemorrhage. Pregnancy-related mortality ratios were estimated for hemorrhage overall and by hemorrhage subclassifications.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Phenobarbital (PB) is a long-acting GABA A-agonist with favorable pharmacokinetics (long half-life and duration of effect) that allows effective treatment of alcohol withdrawal (AW) after administration of a single loading dose. Current evidence suggests that in the setting of AW, PB administration may be associated with decreased hospital admissions and hospital length of stay. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety outcomes of AW patients who were treated and discharged from the emergency department (ED) after receiving PB for AW.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Children with medical complexity (CMC) may be at increased risk of rural-urban disparities in health care delivery given their multifaceted health care needs, but these disparities are poorly understood. This study evaluated rural-urban disparities in health care delivery to CMC and determined whether Medicaid coverage, co-occurring disability, and community poverty modified the effects of rurality on care delivery.
Methods: This retrospective cohort study of 2012-2017 all-payer claims data from Colorado, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire included CMC <18 years.
Importance: Risk-adjusted neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) utilization and outcomes vary markedly across regions and hospitals. The causes of this variation are poorly understood.
Objective: To assess the association of hospital-level NICU bed capacity with utilization and outcomes in newborn cohorts with differing levels of health risk.
Objective: This review examined the quantitative relationship between group care and overall maternal satisfaction compared with standard individual care.
Data Sources: We searched CINAHL, Clinical Trials, The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases from the beginning of 2003 through June 2023.
Study Eligibility Criteria: We included studies that reported the association between overall maternal satisfaction and centering-based perinatal care where the control group was standard individual care.
Objective: Examine differences in care patterns around adult ADHD between race (White/Non-White) and ethnic (Hispanic/Non-Hispanic) groups utilizing existing quality measures (QMs), concerning diagnosis, treatment, and medication prescribing.
Methods: The AAFP National Research Network in partnership with SUNY Upstate Medical used an EHR dataset to evaluate achievement of 10 ADHD QMs. The dataset was obtained from DARTNet Institute and includes 4 million patients of 873 behavioral and primary care practices with at least 100 patients from 2010 to 2020.
Objective: Several studies have shown that Adult ADHD presents differently in younger and older adults. We sought to assess the difference in care between these two groups using previously identified quality measures (QMs).
Methods: Using electronic health record data, we matched a younger group of ADHD patients to an older group.
Objective: Studies show adult ADHD presents differently in men and women, however few studies contrast ADHD in cisgender and gender diverse adults. We assessed care differences between these groups using previously identified quality measures (QMs).
Methods: Using EHR data, we matched a group of male ADHD patients to a female group.
Introduction: We evaluated how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Medicaid eligibility expansion affected perinatal insurance coverage patterns for Medicaid-enrolled beneficiaries who gave birth overall and by race/ethnicity. We also examined state-level heterogeneous impacts.
Methods: Using the 2011-2013 Medicaid Analytic eXtract and the 2016-2018 Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System Analytic File databases, we identified 1.
Background: Severe maternal morbidity (SMM) is broadly defined as an unexpected and potentially life-threatening event associated with labor and delivery. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) produced 21 different indicators based on International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) hospital diagnostic and procedure codes to identify cases of SMM.
Objectives: To examine existing SMM indicators and determine which indicators identified the most in-hospital mortality at delivery hospitalization.
J Womens Health (Larchmt)
December 2023
To describe pregnancy-related mortality among Hispanic people by place of origin (country or region of Hispanic ancestry), 2009-2018. We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive study of pregnancy-related deaths among Hispanic people, stratified by place of origin (Central or South America, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Other and Unknown Hispanic), using Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System data, 2009-2018. We describe distributions of pregnancy-related deaths and pregnancy-related mortality ratios (number of pregnancy-related deaths per 100,000 live births) overall and by place of origin for select demographic and clinical characteristics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: National analyses suggest that approximately 1 in 5 US hospitals closed their pediatric units between 2008 and 2018. The extent to which pediatric hospitalizations at general hospitals in rural and urban communities decreased during this period is not well understood.
Objective: To describe changes in the number and proportion of pediatric hospitalizations and costs at urban teaching, urban nonteaching, and rural hospitals vs freestanding children's hospitals from 2009 to 2019; to estimate the number and proportion of hospitals providing inpatient pediatric care; and to characterize changes in clinical complexity.
Kidney transplantation in people living with HIV (PLWHIV) is occurring with increasing frequency. Limited international data suggest comparable patient and graft survival in kidney transplant recipients with and without HIV. All PLWHIV aged ≥18 years who received a kidney transplant between 2000 and 2020 were identified by retrospective data initially extracted from Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant Registry (ANZDATA), with additional HIV-specific clinical data extracted from linked local health-care records.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Although children with medical complexity (CMC) have substantial health care needs, the extent to which they receive ambulatory care from primary care versus specialist clinicians is unknown. We aimed to determine the predominant specialty providing ambulatory care to CMC (primary care or specialty discipline), the extent to which specialists deliver well-child care, and associations between having a specialty predominant provider and health care utilization and quality.
Methods: In a retrospective cohort analysis of 2012-17 all-payer claims data from Colorado, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, we identified the predominant specialty providing ambulatory care for CMC <18 years.
Background: The supply of US neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) beds and neonatologists is known to vary markedly across regions, but there have been no investigation of patterns of recent growth (1991-2017) in NICUs in relation to newborn need.
Objective: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that greater growth in NICU capacity occurred in neonatal intensive care regions with higher perinatal risk.
Research Design: A longitudinal ecological analysis with neonatal intensive care regions (n=246) as the units of analysis.