AHRQ Issues Regulatory Update
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NYSDA Publications
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has issued its weekly regulatory update, which can be read below.
Patients with heart failure admitted to hospitals with higher 30-day readmission rates and deaths from all causes have a 24 percent higher risk of suffering one or more adverse events during their stay, according to an AHRQ study in Circulation, Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Among the 3,108 hospitals reviewed, 215 were classified as “better” than average, with death and readmission rates in the top 25thpercentile, and 252 were “worse” than average with both rates in the bottom 75thpercentile. Patients with heart failure admitted to hospitals that perform poorly on mortality and readmission measures have higher risk of acquiring hospital adverse events, the researchers concluded. Access the 
Two articles published on AHRQ’s 
Respectful maternity care is a well-described, rational approach for improving person-centered and equitable intrapartum and postpartum care, but it lacks a standard definition and clear measurement method, according to a new AHRQ evidence review. Researchers reviewed existing literature for definitions and valid measurements of respectful maternity care, its effectiveness for improving maternal and infant health outcomes, and strategies for implementation. They found that tools to measure respectful maternity care demonstrate consistency but lack a gold standard, requiring further evaluation before implementation in U.S. settings. This work is important because severe maternal morbidity and mortality is worse in the United States than in all comparable countries, with the greatest impact on Black women. Access the 
Proceedings published from a National Academies workshop address the current state of racial and ethnic healthcare disparities in the United States. Speakers at the event, sponsored by AHRQ and the National Institutes of Health, highlighted major drivers of healthcare disparities, provided insight into successful and unsuccessful interventions, identified gaps in the evidence base and proposed strategies to close those gaps, and considered ways to scale and spread effective interventions to reduce racial and ethnic inequities in healthcare. This workshop series is part of an ongoing consensus study examining racial and ethnic healthcare disparities in the United States. Access the 
AHRQ will host a virtual software developers meeting on March 7, from 2 to 3 p.m. ET, to discuss implementation of the Common Formats for patient safety data collection. Agenda topics include recent enhancement to the Network of Patient Safety Databases dashboards and data submission to the Patient Safety Organization Privacy Protection Center. Active participation and discussion by meeting participants is encouraged. 