Comparing Primary Health-Care Service Delivery Disruptions Across Disasters.

Objective: The aim of this study was to compare primary care appointment disruptions around Hurricanes Ike (2008) and Harvey (2017) and identify patterns that indicate differing continuity of primary care or care systems across events.

Methods: Primary care appointment records covering 5 wk before and after each storm were identified for Veterans Health Affairs (VA) facilities in the greater Houston and surrounding areas and a comparison group of VA facilities located elsewhere. Appointment disposition percentages were compared within and across storm events to assess care disruptions.

COVID-19: Short term prediction model using daily incidence data.

Background: Prediction of the dynamics of new SARS-CoV-2 infections during the current COVID-19 pandemic is critical for public health planning of efficient health care allocation and monitoring the effects of policy interventions. We describe a new approach that forecasts the number of incident cases in the near future given past occurrences using only a small number of assumptions.

Methods: Our approach to forecasting future COVID-19 cases involves 1) modeling the observed incidence cases using a Poisson distribution for the daily incidence number, and a gamma distribution for the series interval; 2) estimating the effective reproduction number assuming its value stays constant during a short time interval; and 3) drawing future incidence cases from their posterior distributions, assuming that the current transmission rate will stay the same, or change by a certain degree.

Long-Term Care Planning, Preparedness, and Response Among Rural Long-Term Care Providers.

Objective: Rural Long-term Care (LTC) providers face unique challenges when planning, preparing for, and responding to disasters. We sought to better understand challenges and identify best practices for LTC in rural areas.

Methods: Case studies including key informant interviews and site visits were conducted with LTC staff and emergency planning, preparedness, and response partners in three rural communities.

Effect of Telehealth Extended Care for Maintenance of Weight Loss in Rural US Communities: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance: Lifestyle interventions for obesity produce reductions in body weight that can decrease risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease but are limited by suboptimal maintenance of lost weight and inadequate dissemination in low-resource communities.

Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness of extended care programs for obesity management delivered remotely in rural communities through the US Cooperative Extension System.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This randomized clinical trial was conducted from October 21, 2013, to December 21, 2018, in Cooperative Extension Service offices of 14 counties in Florida.

Cost-Effectiveness of Three Doses of a Behavioral Intervention to Prevent or Delay Type 2 Diabetes in Rural Areas.

Background: Rural Americans have higher prevalence of obesity and type 2 diabetes (T2D) than urban populations and more limited access to behavioral programs to promote healthy lifestyle habits. Descriptive evidence from the Rural Lifestyle Intervention Treatment Effectiveness trial delivered through local cooperative extension service offices in rural areas previously identified that behavioral modification with both nutrition education and coaching resulted in a lower program delivery cost per kilogram of weight loss maintained at 2-years compared with an education-only comparator intervention.

Objective: This analysis extended earlier Rural Lifestyle Intervention Treatment Effectiveness trial research regarding weight loss outcomes to assess whether nutrition education with behavioral coaching delivered through cooperative extension service offices is cost-effective relative to nutrition education only in reducing T2D cases in rural areas.

Metadata and Table Caption Correction: What Do Patients Say About Doctors Online? A Systematic Review of Studies on Patient Online Reviews.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/12521.].

Practical Use of Process Mapping to Guide Implementation of a Care Coordination Program for Rural Veterans.

Background: Transitions of care are high risk for vulnerable populations such as rural Veterans, and adequate care coordination can alleviate many risks. Single-center care coordination programs have shown promise in improving transitional care practices. However, best practices for implementing effective transitional care interventions are unknown, and a common pitfall is lack of understanding of the current process at different sites.

What Do Patients Say About Doctors Online? A Systematic Review of Studies on Patient Online Reviews.

Background: The number of patient online reviews (PORs) has grown significantly, and PORs have played an increasingly important role in patients' choice of health care providers.

Objective: The objective of our study was to systematically review studies on PORs, summarize the major findings and study characteristics, identify literature gaps, and make recommendations for future research.

Methods: A major database search was completed in January 2019.

Design of the Rural LEAP randomized trial: An evaluation of extended-care programs for weight management delivered via group or individual telephone counseling.

Obesity is a major contributor to the greater prevalence of chronic disease morbidity and mortality observed in rural versus nonrural areas of the U.S. Nonetheless, little research attention has been given to modifying this important driver of rural/urban disparities in health outcomes.

A Model for Measuring Ambulatory Access to Care Recovery after Disasters.

Introduction: Although little research has examined impacts of disasters on scheduled ambulatory care services, routine care delivery is important for emergency planning and response because missed or delayed care can lead to more urgent care needs. This article presents potential measures of ambulatory care recovery and resilience and applies the measures to data around a recent disaster.

Methods: We conceptualize "ambulatory care recovery" as the change in median business days to complete appointments that were canceled, and "ambulatory care resiliency" as the change in percentage of completed appointments in time frames before, during, and after disasters.

Veterans Health Administration's Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System (DEMPS) Training Evaluation: Potential Implications for Disaster Health Care Volunteers.

Objective: The US Veterans Health Administration's Disaster Emergency Medical Personnel System (DEMPS) is a team of employee disaster response volunteers who provide clinical and non-clinical staffing assistance when local systems are overwhelmed. This study evaluated attitudes and recommendations of the DEMPS program to understand the impact of multi-modal training on volunteer perceptions.

Methods: DEMPS volunteers completed an electronic survey in 2012 (n=2120).

Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations and the Burden of Healthcare-Associated Infections.

Background: An estimated 4% of hospital admissions acquired healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and accounted for $9.8 (USD) billion in direct cost during 2011. In 2010, nearly 140 000 of the 3.

Assessing Hospital Disaster Readiness Over Time at the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

Unlabelled: Introduction There have been numerous initiatives by government and private organizations to help hospitals become better prepared for major disasters and public health emergencies. This study reports on efforts by the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration, Office of Emergency Management's (OEM) Comprehensive Emergency Management Program (CEMP) to assess the readiness of VA Medical Centers (VAMCs) across the nation. Hypothesis/Problem This study conducts descriptive analyses of preparedness assessments of VAMCs and examines change in hospital readiness over time.

Developing Valid Measures of Emergency Management Capabilities within US Department of Veterans Affairs Hospitals.

Unlabelled: Introduction Hospitals play a critical role in providing health care in the aftermath of disasters and emergencies. Nonetheless, while multiple tools exist to assess hospital disaster preparedness, existing instruments have not been tested adequately for validity. Hypothesis/Problem This study reports on the development of a preparedness assessment tool for hospitals that are part of the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA; Washington, DC USA).

Hospital Characteristics are Associated With Readiness to Attain Stage 2 Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Records.

Purpose: To examine the difference between rural and urban hospitals as to their overall level of readiness for stage 2 meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) and to identify other key factors that affect their readiness for stage 2 meaningful use.

Methods: A conceptual framework based on the theory of organizational readiness for change was used in a cross-sectional multivariate analysis using 2,083 samples drawn from the HIMSS Analytics survey conducted with US hospitals in 2013.

Findings: Rural hospitals were less likely to be ready for stage 2 meaningful use compared to urban hospitals in the United States (OR = 0.

Concordance between Self-Reports and Medicare Claims among Participants in a National Study of Chronic Disease Self-Management Program.

Objectives: To evaluate the concordance between self-reported data and variables obtained from Medicare administrative data in terms of chronic conditions and health care utilization.

Design: Retrospective observational study.

Participants: We analyzed data from a sample of Medicare beneficiaries who were part of the National Study of Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) and were eligible for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pilot evaluation of CDSMP (n = 119).

Comparing Survival Following Hip Fracture Repair in VHA and Non-VHA Facilities.

Introduction: Although postsurgical outcomes are similar between Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and non-VHA hospitals for many procedures, no studies have compared 30-day and 1-year survival following hip fracture repair. Therefore, this study compared survival of veterans aged 65 years and older treated in VHA hospitals with a propensity-matched cohort of Medicare beneficiaries in non-VHA hospitals.

Materials And Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 1894 hip fracture repair patients in VHA or non-VHA hospitals between 2003 and 2005.

Comparative effectiveness of three doses of weight-loss counseling: two-year findings from the rural LITE trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effects and costs of three doses of behavioral weight-loss treatment delivered via Cooperative Extension Offices in rural communities.

Methods: Obese adults (N = 612) were randomly assigned to low, moderate, or high doses of behavioral treatment (i.e.

Leveraging Administrative Data for Program Evaluations: A Method for Linking Data Sets Without Unique Identifiers.

In community-based wellness programs, Social Security Numbers (SSNs) are rarely collected to encourage participation and protect participant privacy. One measure of program effectiveness includes changes in health care utilization. For the 65 and over population, health care utilization is captured in Medicare administrative claims data.

Implementing a medical screening and referral program for rural emergency departments.

Context: Emergency Department (ED) overcrowding due to nonemergent use is an ongoing concern. In 2011, a regional health system that primarily serves rural communities in Texas instituted a new program to medically screen and refer nonemergent patients to nearby affiliated rural health clinics (RHCs).

Purpose: This formative evaluation describes the program goals, process, and early implementation experiences at 2 sites that adopted the program before wider implementation within the rural health system.

Determinants of postsurgical discharge setting for male hip fracture patients.

Veterans hospitalized for hip fracture repair may be discharged to one of several rehabilitation settings, but it is not known what factors influence postsurgical discharge setting. The purpose of the study was to examine the patient, facility, and market factors that influence the choice of postsurgical discharge setting. Using a retrospective cohort design, we linked 11,083 veterans who had hip fracture surgeries in a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital from 1998 to 2005 as assessed by the VA National Surgical Quality Improvement Program dataset with administrative data.

Evaluation of a seven state criminal history screening pilot program for long-term care workers.

This article summarizes results from an evaluation of a federally sponsored criminal history screening (CHS) pilot program to improve screening for workers in long-term care settings. The evaluation addressed eight key issues specified through enabling legislation, including efficiency, costs, and outcomes of screening procedures. Of the 204,339 completed screenings, 3.

Effects of health information exchange adoption on ambulatory testing rates.

Objective: To determine the effects of the adoption of ambulatory electronic health information exchange (HIE) on rates of laboratory and radiology testing and allowable charges.

Design: Claims data from the dominant health plan in Mesa County, Colorado, from 1 April 2005 to 31 December 2010 were matched to HIE adoption data on the provider level. Using mixed effects regression models with the quarter as the unit of analysis, the effect of HIE adoption on testing rates and associated charges was assessed.