Feasibility Testing of Health Information Technology: Enabled Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement in the Home Health Setting.

The use of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) to improve patient outcomes, communication, and shared decision-making is of significance to home healthcare. Clinicians have begun to integrate health information technology (HIT) enabled PROM platforms (such as tablets) into routine care to facilitate collection of PROMs. To evaluate the feasibility and suitability of incorporating PROMs into the overall workflow in home healthcare, and integrating data collected with electronic health records (EHRs), we engaged two home healthcare agencies as pilot sites over the course of 4 months.

ACE inhibitor use and mortality reduction: do controlled trial results equal clinical practice?

Randomized trials have shown that angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) reduce mortality and morbidity and improve symptoms in many patients with heart failure. However, recent data show that the rate of ACEI prescriptions in West Virginia Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with heart failure is not increasing. Data from the charts of patients who were discharged from 44 acute care hospitals during 2000 and 2001 were obtained, and these data were matched with current beneficiary data to determine if and when the patient died subsequent to the hospitalization of record.

Beta blocker use in acute myocardial infarction in West Virginia.

This article describes our study of the use of beta blocker drugs in Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized for acute myocardial infarction in West Virginia between 1999 and 2000. We contrasted findings with the responses of practicing cardiologists in the state. The survey asked cardiologists to describe their recent patterns of beta blocker usage, to comment on the severity of generally recognized contraindications to beta blocker administration, and to speculate on reasons why West Virginia's rates of beta blocker use in AMI were lower than rates in most other states.