Efficiency, Efficacy, and Power in the Implementation of a Medication Adherence Aid.

Nonadherence to medication regimens is common, with approximately 50% of patients not taking their medications as prescribed. The Universal Medication Schedule (UMS) is a set of standardized, evidence-based, and patient-centered instructions for pill-form medications that has demonstrated improvements in adherence by promoting patient comprehension. An urban, publicly funded, integrated health care system attempted to adopt UMS labeling but had limited success at its largest pilot site, which was a safety-net health care system's outpatient pharmacy.

Redesigning primary care in the safety net: A qualitative analysis of team-based care implementation.

Background: Team-based care is an innovative approach to primary care in which groups of health care professionals work collaboratively to manage care for groups of patients. Safety-net organizations face specific barriers to implementing health care innovations. More research is needed that documents the dynamics that inform implementation and sustainment of innovative practices in the safety net.

Accurate Measurement In California's Safety-Net Health Systems Has Gaps And Barriers.

Patient safety in ambulatory care has not been routinely measured. California implemented a pay-for-performance program in safety-net hospitals that incentivized measurement and improvement in key areas of ambulatory safety: referral completion, medication safety, and test follow-up. We present two years of program data (collected during July 2015-June 2017) and show both suboptimal performance in aspects of ambulatory safety and questionable reliability in data reporting.

Innovative Implementation Studies Conducted in US Safety Net Health Care Settings: A Systematic Review.

Little is known about dissemination and implementation in safety net settings. The authors conducted a literature review of innovation/implementation studies in US safety net health care settings between 2008 and 2017. Each article was coded for (1) intervention characteristics, (2) implementation stage, (3) internal versus external ownership, and (4) prespecified implementation outcomes (eg, acceptability and fidelity).

Safety-net institutions in the US grapple with new cholesterol treatment guidelines: a qualitative analysis from the PHoENIX Network.

Background: Clinical performance measures, such as for cholesterol control targets, have played an integral role in assessing the value of care and translating evidence into clinical practice. New guidelines often require development of corresponding performance metrics and systems changes that can be especially challenging in safety-net health care institutions. Understanding how public health care institutions respond to changing practice guidelines may be critical to informing how we adopt evolving evidence in clinical settings that care for the most vulnerable populations.

Improving Patient Safety in Public Hospitals: Developing Standard Measures to Track Medical Errors and Process Breakdowns.

Objective: The aim of the study was to develop standards for tracking patient safety gaps in ambulatory care in safety net health systems.

Methods: Leaders from five California safety net health systems were invited to participate in a modified Delphi process sponsored by the Safety Promotion Action Research and Knowledge Network (SPARKNet) and the California Safety Net Institute in 2016. During each of the three Delphi rounds, the feasibility and validity of 13 proposed patient safety measures were discussed and prioritized.

Performance Measurement and Target-Setting in California's Safety Net Health Systems.

Health policies encourage implementing quality measurement with performance targets. The 2010-2015 California Medicaid waiver mandated quality measurement and reporting. In 2013, California safety net hospitals participating in the waiver set a voluntary performance target (the 90th percentile for Medicare preferred provider organization plans) for mammography screening and cholesterol control in diabetes.

Meaningful use in the safety net: a rapid ethnography of patient portal implementation at five community health centers in California.

Objective: US health care institutions are implementing secure websites (patient portals) to achieve federal Meaningful Use (MU) certification. We sought to understand efforts to implement portals in "safety net" health care systems that provide services for low-income populations.

Materials And Methods: Our rapid ethnography involved visits at 4 California safety net health systems and in-depth interviews at a fifth.

Understanding the barriers to successful adoption and use of a mobile health information system in a community health center in São Paulo, Brazil: a cohort study.

Background: Mobile technology to support community health has surged in popularity, yet few studies have systematically examined usability of mobile platforms for this setting.

Methods: We conducted a mixed-methods study of 14 community healthcare workers at a public healthcare clinic in São Paulo, Brazil. We held focus groups with community healthcare workers to elicit their ideas about a mobile health application and used this input to build a prototype app.

Usability of Commercially Available Mobile Applications for Diverse Patients.

Background: Mobile applications or 'apps' intended to help people manage their health and chronic conditions are widespread and gaining in popularity. However, little is known about their acceptability and usability for low-income, racially/ethnically diverse populations who experience a disproportionate burden of chronic disease and its complications.

Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the usability of existing mobile health applications ("apps") for diabetes, depression, and caregiving, in order to facilitate development and tailoring of patient-facing apps for diverse populations.

Online public reactions to frequency of diagnostic errors in US outpatient care.

Background: Diagnostic errors pose a significant threat to patient safety but little is known about public perceptions of diagnostic errors. A study published in in 2014 estimated that diagnostic errors affect at least 5% of US adults (or 12 million) per year. We sought to explore online public reactions to media reports on the reported frequency of diagnostic errors in the US adult population.

Qualitative analysis of programmatic initiatives to text patients with mobile devices in resource-limited health systems.

Background: Text messaging is an affordable, ubiquitous, and expanding mobile communication technology. However, safety net health systems in the United States that provide more care to uninsured and low-income patients may face additional financial and infrastructural challenges in utilizing this technology. Formative evaluations of texting implementation experiences are limited.