Medical care
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Although vulnerable populations may benefit from in-home health information technologies (HIT) that promote disease self-management, there is a "digital divide" in which these groups are often unlikely to use such programs. We describe the early phases of applying and testing an existing Veterans Affairs (VA) HIT-care management program, Care Coordination Home Telehealth (CCHT), to recently homeless Veterans in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing (HUD-VASH) program. Peers were used to support patient participation. ⋯ HIT tools hold promise for in-home care management for recently housed Veterans. Patient-level barriers to enrollment must be addressed in the next steps of quality improvement, testing and evaluating peer-driven CCHT recruitment.
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Comparative Study
Improved cardiovascular risk prediction using nonparametric regression and electronic health record data.
Use of the electronic health record (EHR) is expected to increase rapidly in the near future, yet little research exists on whether analyzing internal EHR data using flexible, adaptive statistical methods could improve clinical risk prediction. Extensive implementation of EHR in the Veterans Health Administration provides an opportunity for exploration. ⋯ Despite the EHR lacking some risk factors and its imperfect data quality, health care systems may be able to substantially improve risk prediction for their patients by using internally developed EHR-derived models and flexible statistical methodology.
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Multicenter Study
Evaluating patient access to Electronic Health Records: results from a survey of veterans.
Personal Health Records (PHRs) tethered to an Electronic Health Record (EHR) offer patients unprecedented access to their personal health information. At the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), the My HealtheVet Pilot Program was an early PHR prototype enabling patients to import 18 types of information, including clinical notes and laboratory test results, from the VA EHR into a secure PHR portal. The goal of this study was to explore Veteran perceptions about this access to their medical records, including perceived value and effect on satisfaction, self-care, and communication. ⋯ Veterans' primary motivation for use of the pilot Web site was the ability to access their own personal health information from the EHR. With patients viewing such access as beneficial to their health and care, PHRs with access to EHR data are positioned to improve health care quality. Making additional information accessible to patients is crucial to meet their needs and preferences.
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Regret after one of the many decisions and interventions that health care professionals make every day can have an impact on their own health and quality of life, and on their patient care practices. ⋯ The RIS is a valid and reliable measure of care-related regret intensity for hospital-based physicians and nurses.
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Understanding how hospitals functioned during the 2009 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic may improve future public health emergency response, but information about its impact on US hospitals remains largely unknown. ⋯ The fall 2009 pandemic period substantially impacted US hospitals, mostly through increased ED visits. For a small proportion of hospitals that experienced a high surge in inpatient admissions, increased mortality from selected clinical conditions was associated with both prepandemic outcomes and surge, highlighting the linkage between daily hospital operations and disaster preparedness.