PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Death rate measure used to judge hospital quality may be misleading

2012-01-05
(Press-News.org) Hospitals, health insurers and patients often rely on patient death rates in hospitals to compare hospital quality. Now a new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine questions the accuracy of that widely used approach and supports measuring patient deaths over a period of 30 days from admission even after they have left the hospital.

Published in the Jan. 3 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine, the study has wide implications as quality measures take on more importance in the healthcare system, notes Elizabeth Drye, M.D., a research scientist at Yale School of Medicine's Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, who led the research. The study compared two widely used approaches to assessing hospital quality. One approach uses mortality rates of patients who die during their initial hospitalization, and the other uses rates of patients who die within 30 days, whether or not they have been discharged.

Drye and colleagues focused on mortality rates for patients with heart attack, heart failure, and pneumonia. For these conditions, one-third to one-half of deaths within 30 days occur after the patient leaves the hospital, but this proportion often varies by hospital.

"We were concerned that only counting deaths during the initial hospitalization can be misleading," said Drye. "Because some hospitals keep their patients for less time than others due to patient transfers to other facilities or because they send patients home more quickly."

Drye and her colleagues found that quality at many U.S. hospitals looked quite different using the two different accounting methods. The team also found that measures looking only at deaths in the hospital favor hospitals that keep their patients for a shorter length of time.

"To assess current and future patient management strategies," said Drye. "We should assess all patients for a standard time period, such as 30 days."

Drye said the findings have implications for any study that compares hospitals using patient outcomes to judge quality. "We hope the study will inform choices about how we measure quality so that we will be using the best tools for building a higher-quality system," she said.

### Other authors on the study included Sharon-Lise T. Normand; Yun Wang; Joseph S. Ross, M.D.; Geoffrey C. Schreiner; Lein Han; Michael Rapp, M.D.; and Harlan M. Krumholz, M.D.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services funded the study.

Citation: Annals of Internal Medicine 156:19-26. (January 3, 2012)


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NAFA Explains Risk Management With New Webinar Series

2012-01-05
In a perfect world, businesses would never have to deal with uncertainty. Fleet managers, who have to face everything from monetary losses due to vehicles involved in crashes to the loss of life itself, realize this isn't a perfect world. Since it is neither possible nor practical to insure against every situation, it is up to the fleet manager to make sure their vehicles are safe, drivers are trained, and crashes are prevented. To help fleet managers learn more about risk management, NAFA Fleet Management Association is running a Risk Management 101 webinar series February ...

Home monitoring may help manage and reduce costs for heart failure

2012-01-05
Heart failure affects 5.8 million people in the U.S. alone and is responsible for nearly 1 million hospitalizations each year, most resulting from a build-up of body fluid in the lungs and other organs due to the heart's inability to pump effectively. The disease needs to be closely tracked in order to avoid such hospitalizations, and home-monitoring interventions may be especially useful, UCLA researchers say. In their new paper, the UCLA authors discuss the importance of heart failure disease-management and early identification, as well as the treatment of body-fluid ...

Autism may be linked to abnormal immune system characteristics and novel protein fragment

Autism may be linked to abnormal immune system characteristics and novel protein fragment
2012-01-05
Tampa, FL (Jan 3, 2012) – Immune system abnormalities that mimic those seen with autism spectrum disorders have been linked to the amyloid precursor protein (APP), reports a research team from the University of South Florida's Department of Psychiatry and the Silver Child Development Center. The study, conducted with mouse models of autism, suggests that elevated levels of an APP fragment circulating in the blood could explain the aberrations in immune cell populations and function – both observed in some autism patients. The findings were recently published online in ...

Warner Norcross Partner Elected President of Community Circle Theater

2012-01-05
Warner Norcross & Judd LLP Partner Scott Keller has been elected president of the Community Circle Theatre board of directors. Keller, who concentrates his law practice on intellectual property, has served as vice president of the organization for the past three years and has been a board member for more than six years. Circle Theatre produces five main stage and one children's Magic Circle productions from May through September, as well as provides curriculum-supporting productions to local schools through its Circle Presents program and hosts cabarets and special ...

Powertec Home Gym Redesigns its Online Magazine

2012-01-05
Powertec Inc., the World's Best Selling Plate Loaded Home Gym Brand, has launched its newly designed online magazine site, the Powertec Online Magazine. Uniquely engineered for the serious lifter, the Powertec brand maximizes weight capacities using Olympic plates vs. the rest of the competitors utilizing on limited resistance pin-stack weights. And with the launch of the Powertec Online Magazine, fitness enthusiasts and loyal Powertec customers will get the chance to know more about Team Powertec athletes such as Rob Riches and Ian Lauer, get helpful tips on diet and ...

Manipulating way bacteria 'talk' could have practical applications, Texas A&M profs say

2012-01-05
COLLEGE STATION, Jan. 3, 2011 – By manipulating the way bacteria "talk" to each other, researchers at Texas A&M University have achieved an unprecedented degree of control over the formation and dispersal of biofilms – a finding with potentially significant health and industrial applications, particularly to bioreactor technology. Working with E. coli bacteria, Professor Thomas K. Wood and Associate Professor Arul Jayaraman of the university's Artie McFerrin Department of Chemical Engineering have employed specific signals sent and received between bacteria to trigger ...

Maternal liver grafts more tolerable for children with rare disease

2012-01-05
Children with a rare, life-threatening disease that is the most common cause of neonatal liver failure – biliary atresia – better tolerate liver transplants from their mothers than from their fathers, according to a UCSF-led study. In the study, researchers reviewed all pediatric liver transplants nationwide from 1996 to 2010, and compared the outcomes for patients who received liver grafts from their mothers with those for patients who received livers from their fathers. Researchers believe the improved outcomes for children receiving a maternal liver graft may be ...

Accell Introduces MHL Cable for Mobile to DTV Connectivity at CES 2012

2012-01-05
Accell, a provider of premium audio/video and computer accessories, today announced the company will be exhibiting its new MHL cable at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show from Jan. 10-13, 2012, in booth #21848. Accell's MHL cable provides a direct connection from MHL-enabled mobile devices to MHL-enabled HDTVs, so consumers can view and share high-definition (HD) content. MHL technology is a rapidly growing HD audio/video connectivity standard that enables a mobile device with MHL technology to deliver 1080p uncompressed video with up to eight channels ...

Nap-deprived tots may be missing out on more than sleep, says University of Colorado-led study

Nap-deprived tots may be missing out on more than sleep, says University of Colorado-led study
2012-01-05
A new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder could be a wake-up call for parents of toddlers: Daytime naps for your kids may be more important than you think. The study shows toddlers between 2 and a half and 3 years old who miss only a single daily nap show more anxiety, less joy and interest and a poorer understanding of how to solve problems, said CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Monique LeBourgeois, who led the study. The results indicate insufficient sleep alters the facial expressions of toddlers -- exciting events are responded to less positively and frustrating ...

DEACOM's Warehouse Management System Integrates Real-Time Solutions

2012-01-05
Deacom, Inc., producer of the DEACOM Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software system for mid-to-large sized batch process manufacturing companies, offers an integrated warehouse management system (WMS) with real-time capabilities. DEACOM's WMS takes inventory management to the next level by using handheld computers to record real-time purchase order receipts, inventory moves, production job finishes, raw material usage and sales order picking. The unique real-time capability means that any warehouse question can be answered instantly by the system. "Real-time ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Metabolically active visceral fat linked to aggressive endometrial cancer, new study reveals

Scientists glimpse how enzymes “dance” while they work, and why that’s important

California partnership aided COVID-19 response and health equity, report finds

University of Oklahoma secures $19.9 million for revolutionary radar technology

Study finds restoring order to dividing cancer cells may prevent metastasis

High-accuracy tumor detection with label-free microscopy and neural networks

Wayne State research reveals fetuses exposed to Zika virus have long-term immune challenges

Researchers deconstruct chikungunya outbreaks to improve prediction and vaccine development

Study finds one-year change on CT scans linked to future outcomes in fibrotic lung disease

Discovery of a novel intracellular trafficking pathway in plant cells

New tool helps forecast volcano slope collapses and tsunamis

Molecular coating cleans up noisy quantum light

From Parkinson's to rare diseases, discovered a key switch for cellular health

Tiny sugars in the brain disrupt emotional circuits, fueling depression

Mini-organs reveal how the cervix defends itself

Africa, climate, and food: How to feed a continent without increasing its carbon footprint

Researchers demonstrates substrate design principles for scalable superconducting quantum materials

How better software choices could cut US health care costs

Concussion history in NCAA athletes yields mixed health outcomes

Counting plastic reveals hidden waste and sparks action

Warming oceans may pose a serious threat to American lobsters

Deaths from drug-induced unintentional injury rise across the US

In car crashes with pedestrians, age and zip code may predict extent of traumatic injuries

AI optimizes evacuation, diagnosis, and treatment of wounded soldiers in Ukraine

Mastectomy linked to worsened sexual health, body image after surgery

Drop in credit score after cancer diagnosis linked to increased mortality, study shows

Use of weight loss drugs before bariatric surgery has soared in recent years, study finds

EMS call times in rural areas take at least 20 minutes longer than national average

Rectal bleeding in young adults linked to 8.5 times higher risk of colorectal cancer

Hospital closures disproportionately affect socioeconomically disadvantaged communities

[Press-News.org] Death rate measure used to judge hospital quality may be misleading