Feasibility of 30-day hospital readmission prediction modeling based on health information exchange data.

Introduction: Unplanned 30-day hospital readmission account for roughly $17 billion in annual Medicare spending. Many factors contribute to unplanned hospital readmissions and multiple models have been developed over the years to predict them. Most researchers have used insurance claims or administrative data to train and operationalize their Readmission Risk Prediction Models (RRPMs).

Supporting HITECH implementation and assessing lessons for the future: The role of program evaluation.

In addition to supporting the adoption and use of health IT, HITECH also included funds to support independent national program evaluation activities. The main challenges of evaluating health IT programs of the breadth and scale of the HITECH programs are the importance of context in the implementation and impact of the programs, the complexity and heterogeneity of the interventions, and the unpredictable nature of the innovative practices spurred by HITECH. The lessons learned include the importance of tailoring evaluation activities to each phase of implementation, flexible mixed methods, and continuous formative evaluation.

Physician capability to electronically exchange clinical information, 2011.

Objectives: To provide national estimates of physician capability to electronically share clinical information with other providers and to describe variation in exchange capability across states and electronic health record (EHR) vendors using the 2011 National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey Electronic Medical Record Supplement.

Study Design: Survey of a nationally representative sample of nonfederal office-based physicians who provide direct patient care.

Methods: The survey was administered by mail with telephone follow-up and had a 61% weighted response rate.