Randomized clinical trials and clinical practice guidelines recommend the use of self-measured blood pressure (SMBP) to help improve the treatment of patients with hypertension. Many clinicians use SMBP in their practices, but there is significant variability in how SMBP is implemented in their day-to-day practice. This quality improvement study details the pragmatic and real-world approach clinicians and administrators used at 3 sites of the IHA Medical Group, a part of Trinity Healthcare, to implement the American Medical Association (AMA) 7-Step SMBP framework as part of the larger AMA hypertension quality improvement program AMA MAP BP. The SMBP program included distributing SMBP devices, training patients on SMBP use, capturing and recording SMBP values in the electronic health record, using SMBP readings in treatment decisions, and receiving reimbursement for patient training and education. Of 331 patients enrolled, 98% of patients had at least 1 return visit within a year. Average systolic blood pressure was reduced by 8 mm Hg between the first and last office visit, and blood pressure control rates increased from 33.5% to 63.5% in these patients. Among patients with one return visit, 46% had documented SMBP readings and 71% were treated with medications. Payors reimbursed 95% of claims submitted for patient training.

There are significant gaps in care for patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) and is a need to focus on improving guideline-concordant care. Recognizing challenges encountered in pursuing sustainable quality improvement (QI) in AF care, the Heart Rhythm Society spearheaded a multifaceted collaboration grounded in the principles of Improvement Science to develop a robust platform aimed specifically at demystifying QI for clinicians and health care systems interested in closing care gaps for patients with AF. Solution development included an innovative discovery process, a design phase, piloting, and refinement, and finished with transformation into a comprehensive digital platform. End-users were engaged throughout the 4-phase process to help ensure the final platform would meet the needs of clinicians and health care systems. The result was the launch of www.CardiQ.org featuring the Atrial Fibrillation QI Framework and an extensive, curated Resource Library that has been accessed by more than 10 000 users spanning over 100 countries.

Atrial fibrillation is a prevalent condition, which is an independent risk factor for ischemic stroke. Anticoagulation is widely used to mitigate stroke risk but remains underprescribed in certain circumstances. The authors evaluated the performance of a health record database query in identifying patients who may benefit from anticoagulation who did not have an active prescription for anticoagulation. Patient charts were reviewed by primary care providers and reasons for deferral of anticoagulation were provided. A subset of the patients identified were found to not have an appropriate reason for deferring anticoagulation. This initiative ultimately led to an increase in referrals to the center for specialty care of atrial fibrillation.

Ambulatory procedures performed electively in hospital outpatient departments are of increasing complexity and constitute a growing share of total procedure volume. Despite their importance, little is known of the prevalence of complications from routine procedures once patients are discharged. This study utilizes a 100% Medicare Fee-for-Service claims data file for the years 2019–2022 to assess the relative frequency of hospital-based ambulatory procedures and 30-day patient postprocedure emergency room and hospitalization complication rates utilizing the Ambulatory Potentially Preventable Complication (AM-PPC) classification method. AM-PPC is a claims-based method designed to calculate comparative provider rates of complication exclusively for elective ambulatory procedures excluding procedures performed in hospital emergency departments. The authors calculated the mean rate of ambulatory complications by procedure across hospitals and then compared them for variation in hospital-specific procedure complication rates to the mean rate. About 2.1% of patients receiving a procedure performed in a hospital outpatient department had an emergency room or inpatient hospitalization visit within 30 days. Complication event rates varied widely across hospital outpatient departments and within specific procedures. Hip arthroplasty complication rates varied from 0.0% to 7.6% while those for upper genitourinary procedures varied from 1.7% to 14.2%. In conclusion, the complication rate for ambulatory procedures is seen to vary substantially across hospital outpatient departments for well-established, routine procedures. This study provides a baseline of complication rates for ambulatory procedures, which will be essential for future efforts to improve patient safety.

Health system executives continually aim to understand how organizational structures impact performance, especially in quality departments. This article, built on over 2 decades of Vizient research, identifies key characteristics of top-performing healthcare organizations. The researchers employed a modified Delphi methodology, involving a multiphase process that integrated literature reviews, content analyses, and expert consensus from top-performing organizations. Key findings reveal that top-performing organizations employ centralized goal setting with decentralized responsibility for implementation, fostering shared accountability at all levels. Horizontal integration underscores the multidisciplinary nature of top-performing quality departments, integrating diverse functions such as patient safety, infection control, and data analytics. Adaptability is an essential factor, with organizations incorporating evolving functions like ambulatory care and analytics, reflecting the dynamic needs of health care systems. By embracing adaptable, integrative, and balanced frameworks, organizations can position themselves to respond effectively to emerging challenges, maintain operational efficiency, and uphold high standards of care delivery.

Several years ago, the US News and World Report changed their risk-adjustment methodology, now relying almost exclusively on chronic conditions for risk adjustment. The impacts of adding selected acute conditions like pneumonia, sepsis, and electrolyte disorders (“augmented”) to their current risk models (“base”) for 4 specialties—cardiology, neurology, oncology, and pulmonology—on estimates of hospital performance are reported here. In the augmented models, many acute conditions were associated with substantial risks of mortality. Compared to the base models, the discrimination and calibration of the augmented models for all specialties were improved. While estimated hospital performance was highly correlated between the 2 models, the inclusion of acute conditions in risk-adjustment models meaningfully improved the predictive ability of those models and had noticeable effects on hospital performance estimates. Measures or conditions that address disease severity should always be included when risk-adjusting hospitalization outcomes, especially if the goal is provider profiling.

The Rothman Index (RI) is a real-time health indicator score that has been used to quantify readmission risk in several fields but has never been studied in gastrointestinal surgery. In this retrospective single-institution study, the association between RI scores and readmissions after unplanned colectomy or proctectomy was evaluated in 427 inpatients. Patient demographics and perioperative measures, including last RI, lowest RI, and increasing/decreasing RI score, were collected. In the selected cohort, 12.4% of patients were readmitted within 30 days of their initial discharge. Last RI, lowest RI, decreasing RI, and increasing RI scores remained significant after controlling for covariates in separate multivariate regression analyses. The last RI score at the time of discharge was found to be the most strongly associated with 30-day readmission risk following colorectal resection. These findings support the RI as a potential tool in the inpatient management of postoperative patients to identify those at high risk of readmission.