Steven D. Pizer, PhD

Patient-provider communication quality metrics at safety net hospitals are indirectly affected by changes in regional market factors that influence patients’ demand for care.

Greater telephone wait times, but not abandonment rates, were associated with lower patient perceptions of their ability to obtain urgent care in a timely manner.

Across many measures of Veterans Health Administration mental health care program characteristics, treatment continuity is most strongly and positively associated with patient satisfaction.  

Given that accountable care organizations (ACOs) will be rated on patient experience and wait times for specialist consults are associated with patient satisfaction, ACOs should monitor this process.

Big Data analyses are observational, raising threats to causal inference. Validity checks help, but we must not let enthusiasm about Big Data obscure the science.

There were no significant differences in the risk of ambulatory care—sensitive condition hospitalization or mortality between patients who initiated analogue insulin compared with the neutral protamine Hagedorn.

Medicare payment reforms require valid measures of high-quality healthcare. Different types of administrative wait time measures predicted glycated hemoglobin levels for new and returning patients.

Longer primary care wait times were associated with small increases in glycated hemoglobin levels. Diabetes care quality improvement strategies should consider timely access to care.