Primary Care-Based Housing Program Reduced Outpatient Visits; Patients Reported Mental And Physical Health Benefits.

Screening for housing instability has increased as health systems move toward value-based care, but evidence on how health care-based housing interventions affect patient outcomes comes mostly from interventions that address homelessness. In this mixed-methods evaluation of a primary care-based housing program in Boston, Massachusetts, for 1,139 patients with housing-related needs that extend beyond homelessness, we found associations between program participation and health care use. Patients enrolled in the program between October 2018 and March 2021 had 2.

System-Level Factors and Time Spent on Electronic Health Records by Primary Care Physicians.

Importance: Primary care physicians (PCPs) spend the most time on the electronic health record (EHR) of any specialty. Thus, it is critical to understand what factors contribute to varying levels of PCP time spent on EHRs.

Objective: To characterize variation in EHR time across PCPs and primary care clinics, and to describe how specific PCP, patient panel, clinic, and team collaboration factors are associated with PCPs' time spent on EHRs.

Association Between Electronic Health Record Time and Quality of Care Metrics in Primary Care.

Importance: Physicians across the US spend substantial time working in the electronic health record (EHR), with primary care physicians (PCPs) spending the most time. The association between EHR time and ambulatory care quality outcomes is unclear.

Objective: To characterize measures of EHR use and ambulatory care quality performance among PCPs.

Increasing demands for quality measurement.

Measurement of health care quality and patient safety is rapidly evolving, in response to long-term needs and more recent efforts to reform the US health system around "value." Development and choice of quality measures is now guided by a national quality strategy and priorities, with a public-private partnership, the National Quality Forum, helping determine the most worthwhile measures for evaluating and rewarding quality and safety of patient care. Yet there remain a number of challenges, including diverse purposes for quality measurement, limited availability of true clinical measures leading to frequent reliance on claims data with its flaws in determining quality, fragmentation of measurement systems with redundancy and conflicting conclusions, few high-quality comprehensive measurement systems and registries, and rapid expansion of required measures with hundreds of measures straining resources.

A two-pronged quality improvement training program for leaders and frontline staff.

Background: A unique two-pronged QI training program was developed at Emory Healthcare (Atlanta), which encompasses five hospitals and a multispecialty physician practice. One two-day program, Leadership for Healthcare Improvement, is offered to leadership, and a four-month program, Practical Methods for Healthcare Improvement, is offered to frontline staff and middle managers. KNOWLEDGE ASSESSMENT: Participants in the leadership program completed self-assessments of QI competencies and pre- and postcourse QI knowledge tests.