Intensive care unit rounding checklists to reduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections.

Objective: To assess whether the implementation of an intensive care unit (ICU) rounding checklist reduces the number of catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs).

Design: Retrospective before-and-after study that took place between March 2013 and February 2017.

Setting: An academic community hospital 16-bed, mixed surgical, cardiac, medical ICU.

Prevention of Medical Device-Related Pressure Injuries Associated With Respiratory Equipment Use in a Critical Care Unit: A Quality Improvement Project.

Medical devices have been identified as an extrinsic risk factor for development of pressure injuries, with as many as 30% to 70% of medical device-related pressure injuries resulting from respiratory equipment. This article describes a quality improvement project undertaken to reduce the occurrence of respiratory device-related pressure injuries in a critically care unit. Multiple actions were implemented to achieve this goal.

A home-based nutrition and physical activity intervention for grandparents raising grandchildren: a pilot study.

Five African American grandparents raising their grandchildren participated in a home-based nutrition and physical activity intervention. The primary goals were to increase grandparents' knowledge and skills in selecting and preparing healthy foods and to increase the grandparents' and grandchildren's physical activity levels. Results revealed that grandparents' concerns regarding their chronic diseases and desire to prevent health problems in their grandchildren served as motivators.

Voluntary disenrollment from Medicare advantage plans: valuable signals of market performance.

Objective: To examine 2000-2005 trends in the reasons Medicare beneficiaries gave for disenrolling from their Medicare Advantage (MA) plans.

Study Design: We used data from 6 consecutive years of Consumer Assessment of Health Plans surveys, which asked about 33 possible reasons for disenrollment, including problems with plan information, out-of-pocket costs, plan benefits, and coverage. Respondents numbered more than 50,000 beneficiaries each year from a variety of MA plan types providing full Medicare benefits in place of traditional fee-for-service Medicare.

Voluntary disenrollment from Medicare managed care: market factors and disabled beneficiaries.

Disenrollment rates from Medicare managed care plans have been reported to the public as an indicator of health plan quality. Previous studies have shown that voluntary disenrollment rates differ among vulnerable subgroups, and that these rates can reflect patient care experiences. We hypothesized that disabled beneficiaries may be affected differently than other beneficiaries by competitive market factors, due to higher expected expenditures and impaired mobility.

Impact of Medicare managed care market withdrawal on beneficiaries.

The 2001 Survey of Involuntary Disenrollees was conducted to investigate the impact of Medicare+Choice (M+C) plan withdrawals on Medicare beneficiaries. Eighty-four percent of a total of 4,732 beneficiaries whose Medicare managed care (MMC) plan stopped serving them at the end of 2000 responded to the survey. Their responses indicated that the withdrawal of plans from Medicare affected beneficiaries in terms of concerns about getting and paying for care, increased payments for premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and changes in health care arrangements.