Is Hospital Service Associated with Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Experiences with Hospital Care?
L. S. Hicks, J. Z. Ayanian, E. J. Orav et al. American Journal of Medicine, May 2005. Many more black and Latino patients report problems with hospitals respecting their preferences, compared with white patients.
Gaps in Health Insurance: An All-American Problem
S. R. Collins, K. Davis, M. M. Doty, J. L. Kriss, and A. L. Holmgren. The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. America's uninsured crisis disproportionately affects lower-income working families. But new survey data show that moderate-income Americans are increasingly going without health coverage as well.
Complementary and Alternative Medical Therapy Use Among Chinese and Vietnamese Americans
A. C. Ahn, Q. Ngo-Metzger, A. T. R. Legedza et al. American Journal of Public Health, April 2006. Many Chinese and Vietnamese Americans use alternative medical treatments—like acupuncture or herbal medicine—but few discuss them with their clinicians. Yet, patients who do discuss use of such therapies are more satisfied with their health care visits.
Transforming Long-Term Care: Giving Residents a Place to Call "Home"
C. Haran. The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. Many Americans dread nursing homes. They picture infirm elderly people slumped in wheelchairs in the halls and shudder. But a growing movement in long-term care is transforming nursing home life.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: An Update on the Quality of American Health Care Through the Patient's Lens
K. Davis, C. Schoen, S. C. Schoenbaum, A.-M. J. Audet, M. M. Doty, A. L. Holmgren, and J. L. Kriss. The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. Focusing on adults with health problems, the authors of this cross-national study find the U.S. ranks at or near the bottom on a number of indicators of health care quality, patient safety, patient-centeredness, efficiency, and equity.
The U.S. Health Care Divide: Disparities in Primary Care Experiences by Income
P. T. Huynh, C. Schoen, R. Osborn, and A. L. Holmgren. The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. U.S. adults with below-average income fare worse than those with above-average income on 21 of 30 measures of primary care access, coordination, and doctor–patient relationships.
Committed to Safety: Ten Case Studies on Reducing Harm to Patients
D. McCarthy and D. Blumenthal. The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. Every year, thousands of Americans die in hospitals from oversights or mistakes in their medical care. A new Fund report describes innovative changes made by 10 organizations to improve patient care and prevent unnecessary harm.
Improving the Delivery of Health Care that Supports Young Children's Healthy Mental Development: Early Accomplishments and Lessons Learned from a Five-State Consortium
N. Kaye. National Academy for State Health Policy and The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. States participating in the Fund's ABCD II initiative—designed to improve the delivery of mental health services for young children—are finding that standardized screening, access to follow-up services, and partnerships with pediatricians are all essential.
Quality Matters: The Next Phase of Patient Safety
The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. Paul M. Schyve, M.D., of JCAHO lays out the steps to achieving a patient safety culture; news briefs; and publications of note.
How States Are Working with Physicians to Improve the Quality of Children's Health Care
H. Pelletier. National Academy for State Health Policy and The Commonwealth Fund, April 2006. In their efforts to improve children's health care, many states are changing their relationships with the provider community. Not just regulators anymore, these states are partnering with pediatricians in a number of ways, according to a new report from NASHP and the Fund.
Adoption of Patient-Centered Care Practices by Physicians
A.-M. J. Audet, K. Davis, S. C. Schoenbaum. Archives of Internal Medicine, April 10, 2006. America's doctors still have a way to go in adopting information technology, practicing team-based care, and collecting feedback from their patients.
Centralized Drug Review Processes in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States
S. G. Morgan, M. McMahon, C. Mitton et al. Health Affairs, March/April 2006. A study of drug coverage assessment in four countries finds that program success depends on the scientific rigor of the review process, the separation of the analysis into distinct phases, and the ability of the public to understand the decision-making rationale.
Transparency in Health Care: The Time Has Come
S. R. Collins and K. Davis. The Commonwealth Fund, March 15, 2006. Giving the public better information about health care costs and quality is essential to improving the health care system, the Fund's Sara R. Collins told the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Health. But she also said patients' use of information on cost is unlikely on its own to transform health care.
Recent Growth in Health Expenditures
S. Zuckerman and J. McFeeter. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. New strategies, such as consumer-directed health plans, pay-for-performance, and chronic care management, are being evaluated to constrain health care cost growth and improve outcomes.
Can Medicaid Do More with Less?
A. Weil. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. Medicaid enrollees cannot absorb increases in out-of-pocket costs as readily as the working population. New strategies may help reign in costs without shifting the burden to patients.
Workers' Health Insurance: Trends, Issues, and Options to Expand Coverage
P. Fronstin. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. An increasing number of working adults are without health insurance coverage, and forecasts indicate continuing declines in coverage.
Medicare's New Adventure: The Part D Drug Benefit
J. Hoadley. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. The government faces many challenges in implementing the new Medicare prescription drug benefit. First among them is overseeing the enrollment of millions of beneficiaries into private plans, including shifting those currently relying on Medicaid coverage to Medicare drug plans.
Measuring, Reporting, and Rewarding Performance in Health Care
R. Sorian. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. Efforts to improve and increase care measurement and align the incentives of providers through pay-for-performance programs are important building blocks in developing a health care system that performs more effectively and efficiently.
Quality Development in Health Care in the Netherlands
R. Grol. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. Despite spending proportionately far less than the U.S. on health care, the Netherlands has implemented a number of health sector reforms that have led to important quality improvements.
Toward a High Performance Health System for the United States
A. Gauthier, S. C. Schoenbaum, and I. Weinbaum. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. The U.S. health care system falls short on several dimensions of performance. Rather than addressing coverage, quality, and cost as separate issues, it might be time to consider them simultaneously.
Using Clinical Evidence to Manage Pharmacy Benefits: Experiences of Six States
D. Bergman, J. Hoadley, N. Kaye, J. Crowley, and M. Hostetter. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. Many states believe that clinical evidence about drug effectiveness can be used to curtail pharmacy costs, while also ensuring that beneficiaries have access to their medications.
States in Action: A Quarterly Look at Innovations in Health Policy
S. Silow-Carroll and F. Pervez. The Commonwealth Fund, March 2006. A profile of Washington State's approach to drug purchasing, snapshots of coverage expansion efforts in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Maryland, and more.
Special Issue: Comparative Perspectives on Health Disparities
V. N. Gamble, D. Stone, K. Ladenheim, B. K. Gibbs, et al. Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, February 2006. Four Fund-supported articles refocus policy discussion on finding solutions to health disparities, including efforts now under way at the state and local level.
The Impact of Interpreters on Parents' Experiences with Ambulatory Care for Their Children
L. S. Morales, M. Elliott, and R. Weech-Maldonado et al. Medical Care Research and Review, February 2006. A Fund-supported study of parents of children in the California State Children's Health Insurance Program showed that patients were happier with their care when an interpreter was provided, but less than half of those needing an interpreter got one.
Working Within and Beyond the Cochrane Collaboration to Make Systematic Reviews More Useful to Healthcare Managers and Policy Makers
J. N. Lavis, H. T. O. Davies, R. L. Gruen et al. Healthcare Policy, Vol. 1, Issue 2. Systematic reviews of health care interventions have advantages over individual studies. A study by former Harkness Fellows says such reviews could be even more useful by looking at risks, costs, and implementation issues.
Navigating the Terrain Between Research and Practice: A Collaborative Research Network (CRN) Case Study in Diabetes Research
M. A. Handley, H. Hammer, and D. Schillinger. Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, January/February 2006. Clinical research is often difficult to translate to primary care settings. This case study of a diabetes intervention looks at the trade-offs in "translational research."
Twenty Common Nursing Home Problems and the Laws to Resolve Them
E. Carlson. Clearinghouse Review Journal of Poverty Law and Policy, January/February 2006. An attorney with the National Senior Citizens Law Center discusses 20 common problems facing nursing home residents—from misuse of feeding tubes to unequal treatment based on insurance status—and explains the laws to resolve them.