The American journal of managed care
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Patient experience surveys are essential to measuring patient-centered care, a key component of health care quality. Low response rates in underserved groups may limit their representation in overall measure performance and hamper efforts to assess health equity. Telephone follow-up improves response rates in many health care settings, yet little recent work has examined this for surveys of Medicare enrollees, including those with Medicare Advantage. Our objective was to describe response rates to the 2022 Medicare Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (MCAHPS) surveys and the completion mode (mail or telephone), overall and by person-level characteristics. ⋯ Including a telephone component in the administration of the MCAHPS survey continues to have value because several groups still show a relative preference for survey completion by telephone. Steps should be taken to improve response rates by telephone.
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Patients who revisit the emergency department (ED) shortly after discharge are a high-risk group for complications and death, and these revisits may have been seriously affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Detecting suspected COVID-19 cases in EDs is resource intensive. We examined the associations of screening workload for suspected COVID-19 cases with in-hospital mortality and intensive care unit (ICU) admission during short-term ED revisits. ⋯ This is the first study to our knowledge to identify that screening for suspected COVID-19 cases in EDs can adversely affect patient outcomes during short ED revisits. Identifying this association could enable ED providers and policy makers to optimize emergency service delivery during an epidemic and help patients.
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To describe the outcomes of a partnership between a drug plan and pharmacists to switch patients from brand name dipeptidyl-peptidase-4 inhibitors to the generic alogliptin. ⋯ The use of pharmacists was beneficial in switching patients to alogliptin and yielded cost savings without compromising patient outcomes.
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To assess the effects of a nurse-led personalized care plan on the duration of olaparib therapy among patients with cancer. ⋯ A nurse-led personalized care approach effectively increased medication persistence among patients receiving olaparib for treatment of cancer, and the effect was more apparent among care plan patients who experienced symptom resolution or dose modification.
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Observational Study
Cancellations in primary care in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System.
Unused medical appointments affect both patient care and clinic operations, and the frequency of cancellations due to clinic reasons is underreported. The prevalence of these unused appointments in primary care in the Veterans Affairs Health Care System (VA) is unknown. This study examined the prevalence of unused primary care appointments and compared the relative frequency of cancellations and no-shows for patient and clinic reasons. ⋯ Although this study shows that same-day cancellations of primary care appointments in the VA are common, comparisons with other providers and health care systems indicate similar or lower levels of unused appointments in the VA.