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ÂÜÀòÊÓƵStats: Leading Causes of Death in 2020

Heart disease and cancer accounted for 168.2 and 144.1 deaths per 100,000 individuals, respectively, in 2020, making them the leading cause of death that year. COVID-19 was the third most common cause at 85.0 deaths per 100,000 people. (Source: ÂÜÀòÊÓƵ2022 National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report [PDF, 3.8 MB].)

Today's Headlines:

• ÂÜÀòÊÓƵViews Blog: Long COVID Is a Case Study of Our Fractured Healthcare System.
• Latest Database Launched in ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s Data Innovations Effort.
• Highlights From ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s Patient Safety Network.
• Health Systems Slightly Outperformed Non-systems on Clinical Quality and Patient Experience, But at Higher Costs and Spending .
• New Resource Helps Primary Care Extension Programs Sustain Funding.
• Explore Careers at AHRQ.
• ÂÜÀòÊÓƵin the Professional Literature.

ÂÜÀòÊÓƵViews Blog: Long COVID Is a Case Study of Our Fractured Healthcare System

In a new ÂÜÀòÊÓƵViews blog post, National Advisory Council Chair Edmondo Robinson, M.D., M.B.A., M.S., discusses the vexing challenges presented by Long COVID while emphasizing ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s potential to respond to severe gaps that have emerged in our fractured healthcare system. Members of ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s National Advisory Council, which advises ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s director on agency activities and priorities, recently authored blog posts that addressed quality of care issues in behavioral health, home health, hospice and long-term care. Dr. Robinson’s new blog highlights ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s emerging efforts to address Long COVID and notes the agency’s potential to act as a convener and bring together stakeholders to address today’s healthcare challenges. Access the blog post. To receive all blog posts, .

Latest Database Launched in ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s Data Innovations Effort

As part of ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s ongoing effort to offer new ways to access, synthesize and use healthcare data, the agency has launched the Physician and Physician Practice Research Database (3P-RD). This new database captures information on physician and physician practice characteristics to help address data gaps in physician information within health services at the state and market levels. The latest addition to the 3P-RD is the Physician Practice files, which offer insights into the characteristics of physician practices in each participating state. Other datasets within the 3P-RD include the Physician Geographic and Physician Practice Geographic files, providing summaries of data at the three-digit zip code level. ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s Data Innovations resource also includes the Synthetic Healthcare Database for Research (SyH-DR) database and Social Determinants of Health.

Highlights From ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s Patient Safety Network

´¡±á¸é²Ï’s highlights journal articles, books and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

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Review additional new publications in PSNet’s or access recent in ´¡±á¸é²Ï’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

Health Systems Slightly Outperformed Non-systems on Clinical Quality and Patient Experience, But at Higher Costs and Spending

In a study of health systems in 2018, AHRQ-funded researchers found that health system patients received slightly better care on preventive and clinical performance measures, and reported experiencing better care, but incurred higher spending than non-systems patients. Prices for services delivered by system physicians and hospitals were significantly higher than those of non-system providers. Health systems were found varied greatly in size, with other private and large nonprofit systems being the most common type. Systems provided primary care to 41 percent of Medicare beneficiaries and accounted for 40 percent of physicians and 84 percent of acute care beds, and system hospitals and physician practices were larger than those not part of systems. 

New Resource Helps Primary Care Extension Programs Sustain Funding

A new ÂÜÀòÊÓƵresource provides guidance for extension programs seeking sustainable funding. Extension programs help primary care practices implement the best evidence to improve care through various strategies including practice facilitation or coaching, health information and technology support, academic detailing and data feedback. To help extension programs address funding challenges, the new resource includes information about:

• Strategies to secure funding.
• Potential funding resources.
• Examples and tips, primarily from ÂÜÀòÊÓƵgrantees. 

Explore Careers at AHRQ

Join the team that strives to improve healthcare for all Americans by investing in health systems research, creating strategies to support practice improvement and providing data and analytics to identify opportunities for improvement. Current vacancies include:

• . Application deadline: March 27.
• , Office of Extramural Research, Education and Priority Populations/ Division of Research Education. Application deadline: April 3.
• , Center for Financing, Access and Cost Trends. Application deadline: April 4.
• , Office of Extramural Research, Education and Priority Populations, Division of Priority Populations. Application deadline: April 6.
• , Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement, Division of Digital Healthcare Research. Application deadline: April 12.

ÂÜÀòÊÓƵin the Professional Literature

Evaluation of the shared decision-making process scale in cancer screening and medication decisions. Vo H, Valentine KD, Barry MJ, et al. Patient Educ Couns 2023 Mar;108:107617. Epub 2022 Dec 23. Access the on PubMed®.

Examining medication ordering errors using ÂÜÀòÊÓƵnetwork of patient safety databases. Grauer A, Rosen A, Applebaum JR, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc 2023 Jan 30. [Epub ahead of print.] Access the on PubMed®.

Effect of apneic oxygenation with intubation to reduce severe desaturation and adverse tracheal intubation-associated events in critically ill children. Napolitano N, Polikoff L, Edwards L, et al. Crit Care 2023 Jan 17;27(1):26. Access the on PubMed®.

Effectiveness of a bite-sized web-based intervention to improve healthcare worker wellbeing: A randomized clinical trial of WISER. Sexton JB, Adair KC, Cui X, et al. Front Public Health 2022 Dec 8;10:1016407. Access the on PubMed®.

Social risk adjustment in the hospital readmission reduction program: pitfalls of peer grouping, measurement challenges, and potential solutions. Aswani MS, Roberts ET. Health Serv Res 2023 Feb;58(1):51-9. Epub 2022 Mar 19. Access the on PubMed®.

The association between bundled payment participation and changes in medical episode outcomes among high-risk patients. Liao JM, Wang E, Isidro U, et al. Healthcare 2022 Dec 12;10(12):2510. Access the on PubMed®.

Extent of follow-up on abnormal cancer screening in multiple California public hospital systems: a retrospective review. Khoong EC, Rivadeneira NA, Pacca L, et al. J Gen Intern Med 2023 Jan;38(1):21-9. Epub 2022 May 31. Access the on PubMed®.

Organization and performance of US health systems. Beaulieu ND, Chernew ME, McWilliams JM, et al. JAMA 2023 Jan 24;329(4):325-35. Access the on PubMed®.