Data from a national survey of Veterans Health Administration specialists indicate that referral templates may improve the appropriateness, clarity, and completeness of primary care–specialty care referrals.
The majority of patients prescribed antipsychotic medications in state Medicaid programs are taking these agents for off-label indications.
This study shows how cardiovascular prevention would be much more efficient if risk were used in treatment decisions, but that currently it plays no role.
Encouraging Value-Based Insurance Designs in State Health Insurance Exchanges
This pooled analysis assesses preferred roles in treatment decision making, actual roles, and preferred versus actual discordance among 6 studies of patients with cancer.
For 2 successive years, the Hackensack Alliance Accountable Care Organization achieved cost savings and maintained quality by using physicians with patient-centered medical homes and nurse care coordinators focused on high-risk patients.
Improving adherence to long-term medication therapy remains a challenge. Health information technology interventions that leverage electronic medical records are promising, low-cost approaches for increasing adherence.
Many patients stop taking medications for chronic conditions, thereby reducing the effectiveness of healthcare. An attempt to screen electronic VA healthcare records to identify patients as they discontinued a medication was not an efficient approach to this problem.
A flexible population-based prescription opioid registry was established for addressing a broad range of critical public health questions relating to prescription opioid use.
This report describes the initial implementation of pharmacist-performed comprehensive medication management as part of an interdisciplinary care team at an accountable care organization’s primary care offices.
The authors observed a marked shift toward treatment of higher-risk subsets of younger postmenopausal women (with prior fracture and/or with osteoporosis), and away from women at lower risk.
Cluster analysis can aid in identifying subgroups of patients with similar patterns of comorbid conditions for targeted care management.
Patients with rheumatoid arthritis self-report a moderate rate of any previous pneumococcal vaccination (54%) and a very low rate of herpes zoster vaccination (8%).
Clinical pharmacy specialists impact patient care through improvements in clinical outcomes for diabetes, hypertension, and dyslipidemia via clinical interventions and promotion of medication adherence.
A reimbursement strategy for collaborative care models is presented to enhance access to integrated behavioral healthcare for children and adolescents from underserved areas.
Palliative and hospice care services produce well-known benefits for patients living with serious illness and for their families. Benefits include improved quality of life and reduced symptom burden, spiritual and emotional distress, and caregiver distress.