September 24, 2024, Issue #930

AHRQ Stats: Prevalence of Long COVID According to Income

Among adults who ever had COVID-19, those living in high-income households were less likely to report ever having long COVID (11.0 percent) than those living in middle-income households (15.6 percent), low-income or near poor households (17.4 percent), and those living in poor households (17.2 percent). (Source: AHRQ Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Statistical Brief #557 – Prevalence of Long COVID Among Adults Who Have Ever Had COVID-19, by Selected Demographic and Socioeconomic Characteristics, U.S. Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population, Spring 2023)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Summit to Address Emergency Department Boarding
• Shaping the Future of Patient Empowerment and Care Delivery Through Digital Healthcare Research
• Topic Brief Provides Guidance on Behavioral-Developmental Health Screening for Young Children
• Register for AHRQ Webinars
• New Software Enables Users to Produce Area-level Rates of Severe Maternal Morbidity
• Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network
• National Academies Report Provides Goals to Improve Healthcare for Children, Youth, and Families
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

AHRQ Summit to Address Emergency Department Boarding

An AHRQ summit on Oct. 8 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET will address the challenges of emergency department (ED) boarding. The live stream webcast will be aimed at identifying hospital- and health system-level solutions to circumstances that sometimes force patients to spend hours—or in some cases, days—in the ED while waiting for an inpatient bed or transfer to another facility. Interested audiences may include patients and consumers, clinicians, hospital and health system leaders, policy makers, experts in emergency medicine, community health, behavioral health, and specialty care providers. Brendan G. Carr, M.D., M.A., chief executive officer of Mount Sinai Health System, will be the featured speaker. The summit will also include a panel on the impacts of ED boarding and a session on “myths and matters” of ED boarding solutions. Access the live stream link on the day of the summit.

Shaping the Future of Patient Empowerment and Care Delivery Through Digital Healthcare Research

AHRQ’s ongoing investments in research to improve patient care via digital healthcare technologies—including the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence—is the subject of a new AHRQ Views blog post authored by Chris Dymek, Ed.D., director of AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research Program. The blog post highlights the program’s newly released 2023 year-in-review report, Improving Healthcare Through AHRQ’s Digital Healthcare Research, which showcases AHRQ-funded projects focused on digital technologies that engage and empower patients and optimize and advance care delivery. Access the blog post, which describes how AHRQ-funded researchers have explored digital technologies’ potential to advance emergency department triage, screening for intimate partner violence, and other areas of healthcare. To receive all blog posts, submit your email address.

Topic Brief Provides Guidance on Behavioral-Developmental Health Screening for Young Children

A new topic brief from AHRQ highlights five behavioral-developmental health screening and response models for children ages 0-5 and provides guidance for implementation in pediatric and family medicine practices. Behavioral-developmental health screening aims to provide families with young children the assistance and knowledge to promote foundational brain development during the first 5 years of life. The brief was developed by AHRQ’s Academy, which provides topic briefs to support the integration of behavioral health and primary care.

Register for AHRQ Webinars

• Sept. 27, 1 to 2 p.m. ET: Technical Assistance for AHRQ Healthcare Extension Service Cooperative Applicants will provide guidance to organizations seeking to become one of AHRQ’s Healthcare Extension Cooperatives, a central part of AHRQ’s emerging Healthcare Extension Service: State-Based Solutions to Healthcare Improvement.
• Oct. 8, Noon to 1 p.m. ET: Leadership Strategies That Improve Workforce Safety and Well-Being, sponsored by the National Alliance for Patient and Workforce Safety, will provide tools and feature experts from hospital and primary care settings who will share how leadership behaviors are creating safer, healthier work environments.
• Oct. 17, 1 to 2 p.m. ET: Introducing the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) Outpatient Mental Health Survey will focus on the purpose and design of the new Outpatient Mental Health Survey.

New Software Enables Users to Produce Area-level Rates of Severe Maternal Morbidity

AHRQ has released new beta software that allows states and healthcare organizations to calculate severe maternal morbidity using readily available inpatient administrative claims data. By allowing access to detailed clinical data, the Maternal Health Indicators software helps organizations understand severe maternal morbidity trends and develop quality improvement efforts. It is not intended as an accountability measure or for comparisons across hospitals. As with all AHRQ quality measures, users may calculate the measures at an aggregate level or by race and ethnicity, payer, and other groups. AHRQ welcomes your feedback; comments or questions may be sent to QIsupport@ahrq.hhs.gov.

Highlights From AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network

AHRQ’s Patient Safety Network (PSNet) highlights journal articles, books, and tools related to patient safety. Articles featured this week include:

• Perceptions of hospital electronic health record (EHR) training, support, and patient safety by staff position and tenure.
• ROI for a fall prevention intervention: invest a little, save a lot.
• Assessing between- and within-hospital differences in patient safety between Medicaid and privately insured hospital patients.

Review additional new publications in PSNet’s current issue, including recent cases and commentaries and AHRQ’s WebM&M (Morbidity and Mortality Rounds on the Web).

National Academies Report Provides Goals to Improve Healthcare for Children, Youth, and Families

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine explores how to better meet all children's needs and leverage community support by rethinking healthcare financing, public health investment, community partnerships, and accountability. Despite advances in healthcare, children—especially those from historically marginalized groups—face rising rates of chronic diseases, obesity, and mental health challenges. AHRQ was a co-sponsor of the report, which highlights goals and recommendations for equitable child and adolescent healthcare: Elevate the importance of child and adolescent health through continuous public focus on children and youth. Finance health systems for all children, emphasizing prevention and health promotion. Strengthen community-level health promotion and disease prevention. Ensure co-creation and co-design of programs and structures with youth, family and community voices, and leadership. Implement measurement and accountability to ensure equitable goal achievement. Access the report, Launching Lifelong Health by Improving Health Care for Children, Youth, and Families.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Systematic Review: Behavioral Interventions for Migraine Prevention
• Systematic Review (draft open for comment): Breastfeeding and Health Outcomes for Infants and Children

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Screening for unhealthy alcohol use among patients with multiple chronic conditions in primary care. Rockwell MS, Funk AJ, Huffstetler AN, et al. AJPM Focus. 2024 Aug;3(4):100233. Epub 2024 May 7. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Use of telehealth among medical visits in the United States: results from the 2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Decker SL, Encinosa WE, Zuvekas SH. Ann Intern Med. 2024 Jul;177(7):987-90. Epub 2024 Jun 4. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Cancer care coordination in rural Hawaii: a focus group study. Chang S, Liu M, Braun-Inglis C, et al. BMC Health Serv Res. 2024 Apr 24;24(1):518. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

The association between social vulnerability and geriatric assessment impairments among older adults with gastrointestinal cancers-The CARE Registry. Fowler ME, Harmon C, Tucker A, et al. Cancer. 2024 Sep 15;130(18):3188-97. Epub 2024 Jun 2. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Evaluating the reach of a patient navigation program for follow-up colonoscopy in a large Federally Qualified Health Center. Gautom P, Rosales AG, Petrik AF, et al. Cancer Prev Res. 2024 Jul 2;17(7):325-33. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Diagnostic errors in obstetric morbidity and mortality: methods for and challenges in seeking diagnostic excellence. Krenitsky NM, Perez-Urbano I, Goffman D. J Clin Med. 2024 Jul 20;13(14):4245. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Surveillance of health care-associated violence using natural language processing. Waltzman M, Ozonoff A, Fournier KA, et al. Pediatrics. 2024 Aug 1;154(2). Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Assessing access to trauma-informed outpatient mental health services for adolescents: a mystery shopper study. Adams DR, Pérez-Flores NJ, Mabrouk F, et al. Psychiatr Serv. 2024 May;75(5):402-9. Epub 2023 Nov 29. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Contact Information
For comments or questions about AHRQ News Now, contact Bruce Seeman, (301) 427-1998 or Bruce.Seeman@ahrq.hhs.gov.