Journal of general internal medicine
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Deprescribing, intentional medication discontinuation or dose reduction, can reduce potentially inappropriate medication use and medication-related harms. Engaging patients in deprescribing discussions may increase likelihood of deprescribing and promote shared decision-making. ⋯ Patient characteristics and brochure engagement were associated with deprescribing discussions. Patient-centered deprescribing brochures can foster patient engagement and inclusion of patient perspectives into deprescribing decisions. Future studies should explore implementation strategies that promote greater deprescribing reach and adoption among patients with lower health literacy.
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Moral injury affects a variety of populations who make ethically complex decisions involving their own and others' well-being, including combat veterans, healthcare workers, and first responders. Yet little is known about occupational differences in the prevalence of morally injurious exposures and outcomes in nationally representative samples of such populations. ⋯ Results from these nationally representative samples of three high-risk populations suggest that exposure to PMIEs is common and a sizable minority report clinically meaningful moral injury.
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Oropharyngeal dysphagia (dysphagia) is a common (up to 86%) and devastating syndrome in hospitalized older adults with dementia. ⋯ Our study highlights the need for standardizing dysphagia management best practices in hospitalized patients with dementia, the importance of addressing goals of care, and provider education on the risks and benefits of dysphagia diets and artificial nutrition via PEG tube.
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Quality of care can be measured in several dimensions: different clinical disciplines, structures/processes/outcomes of care (SPO), and also different domains of quality (effectiveness, safety, care coordination, patient-centeredness, efficiency, timeliness, and community/population health). To our knowledge, no previous study has compared different sets of performance measures in terms of how well they cover these different aspects of quality. ⋯ The measure sets we examined, which overwhelmingly measure processes of care, should be encouraged to add structure and outcomes measures. All three measure sets under-emphasize certain aspects of quality such as timeliness, care coordination, efficiency, and patient-centeredness. Finally, and most importantly, all three measure sets focused overwhelmingly on measuring the activities of family physicians; attention should be given to building measures that will examine the activities of other clinicians.