Population Health Management

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Health Care Access Improves with State-Level Medicaid Expansion

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Food Insecurity and Hospital Visits - Is There a Link?

Having access to adequate and appropriate food is a major population health issue This study investigated food insecurity in patients with high rates of inpatient hospitalization (“super-utilizers”) Forty adults with =3 hospital inpatient admissions within a 12-month period were interviewed in an urban hospital in Philadelphia Pennsylvania between March 2015 and May 2015 Inpatient admission history was obtained from hospital billing data The majority had =5 hospitalizations in the past 12 months and =6 chronic conditions Using the USDA definition of food insecurity 30% (95%...

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Expert Panel Urges New Approaches to Curtail U.S. Opioid Epidemic

The American Opioid Epidemic Population Health Implications and Potential Solutions Report from the National Stakeholder Panel Janice L Clarke RN Alexis Skoufalos EdD and Richard Scranton MD MPH Editorial David B Nash MD MBA S-1 Introduction S-1 The Evolution of Opioid Use in the United States S-2 Unintended Consequences of Postsurgical Pain Management S-2 Pivotal Role of Postsurgical...

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Can Health Coaches Improve Care of Insured Patients with Chronic Diseases?

Health coach programs using low-cost unlicensed providers have largely targeted uninsured or underserved populations raising questions about uptake and effectiveness for insured patients This observational study evaluated the referral process uptake and effectiveness of a health coach program for patients with diabetes and/or hypertension at a multispecialty clinic Data included appointment observations interviews with patients physicians and health coaches patient and physician characteristics and measures of utilization and clinical outcomes Out of 1313 eligible patients 308 (23 5%) were referred over a 12-month period and...

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Successful Model for Statewide Collaborative Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospital Readmissions

Increasing scrutiny of hospital readmission rates has spurred a wide variety of quality improvement initiatives The Preventing Avoidable Readmissions Together (PART) initiative is a statewide quality improvement learning collaborative organized by stakeholder organizations in South Carolina This descriptive report focused on initial interventions with hospitals Eligible participants included all acute care hospitals plus home health organizations nursing facilities hospices and other health care organizations Measures were degree of statewide participation curricular engagement adoption of evidence-based improvement strategies and readmission rate changes Fifty-nine of 64 (92%)...