Relationship between practice characteristics of primary care internists and unnecessary hospital days

Musculoskeletal ultrasound objective structured clinical examination: an assessment of the test

OBJECTIVE

To determine the reliability and validity of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSUS).

METHODS

A 9-station OSCE was administered to 35 rheumatology fellows trained in MSUS and to 3 expert faculty (controls). Participants were unaware of joint health (5 diseased/4 healthy). Faculty assessors (n = 9) graded image quality with predefined checklists and a 0-5 global rating, blinded to who performed the study. Interrater reliability, correlation between a written multiple choice question examination (MCQ) and OSCE performance, and comparison of fellow OSCE results with those of the faculty were measured to determine OSCE reliability, concurrent validity, and construct validity.

RESULTS

Assessors' interrater reliability was good (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] 0.7). Score reliability was good in the normal wrist and ankle stations (ICC 0.7) and moderate in the abnormal wrist and ankle stations (ICC 0.4). MCQ grades significantly correlated with OSCE grades (r = 0.52, P < 0.01). The fellows in the bottom quartile of the MCQ scored 3.07 on the OSCE, significantly worse than the top quartile fellows (3.32) and the faculty (3.29; P < 0.01). Scores also significantly discriminated bottom quartile fellows from faculty in the normal wrist and ankle stations (3.38 versus 3.78; P < 0.01), but not in the abnormal stations (3.37 versus 3.49; P = 0.08).

CONCLUSION

MSUS OSCE is a reliable and valid method for evaluation of MSUS skill. Normal joint assessment stations are more reliable than abnormal joint assessment stations and better discriminate poorly performing fellows from faculty. Therefore, MSUS OSCE with normal joints can be used for the assessment of MSUS skill competency.

Physicians with the least experience have higher cost profiles than do physicians with the most experience

Health plans and Medicare are using cost profiles to identify which physicians account for more health care spending than others. By identifying the costliest physicians, health plans and Medicare hope to craft policy interventions to reduce total health care spending. To identify which physician types, if any, might be costlier than others, we analyzed cost profiles created from health plan claims for physicians in Massachusetts. We found that physicians with fewer than ten years of experience had 13.2 percent higher overall costs than physicians with forty or more years of experience. We found no association between costs and other physician characteristics, such as having had malpractice claims or disciplinary actions, board certification status, and the size of the group in which the physician practices. Although winners and losers are inevitable in any cost-profiling effort, physicians with less experience are more likely to be negatively affected by policies that use cost profiles, unless they change their practice patterns. For example, these physicians could be excluded from high-value networks or receive lower payments under Medicare's planned value-based payment program. We cannot fully explain the mechanism by which more-experienced physicians have lower costs, but our results suggest that the more costly practice style of newly trained physicians may be a driver of rising health care costs overall.

A prospective study of reasons for prolonged hospitalizations on a general medicine teaching service

BACKGROUND

Delays in the care of hospitalized patients may lead to increased length of stay, iatrogenic complications, and costs. No study has characterized delays among general medicine inpatients in the current prospective payment era of care.

OBJECTIVE

To quantify and characterize delays in care which prolong hospitalizations for general medicine inpatients.

DESIGN

Prospective survey of senior residents.

SETTING

Urban tertiary care university-affiliated teaching hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

Sixteen senior residents were surveyed regarding 2,831 patient-days.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Data were collected on 97.6% (2,762) of patient-days eligible for evaluation. Three hundred seventy-three patient-days (13.5% of all hospital days) were judged unnecessary for acute inpatient care, and occurred because of delays in needed services. Sixty-three percent of these unnecessary days were due to nonmedical service delays and 37% were due to medical service delays. The vast majority of nonmedical service delays (84%) were due to difficulty finding a bed in a skilled nursing facility. Medical service delays were most often due to postponement of procedures (54%) and diagnostic test performance (21%) or interpretation (10%), and were significantly more common on weekend days (relative risk [RR], 1.49; P=.02). Indeed, nearly one fourth of unnecessary patient-days (24% overall, 88 patient-days) involved an inability to access medical services on a weekend day (Saturday or Sunday).

CONCLUSIONS

At our institution, a substantial number of hospital days were judged unnecessary for acute inpatient care and were attributable to delays in medical and nonmedical services. Future work is needed to develop and investigate measures to decrease delays.

The efficiency of acute care bed utilization in Newfoundland and Labrador

Hospital efficiency is closely related to utilization levels and length of stay. This study determined whether inappropriate bed utilization in Newfoundland was related to inefficiency or inadequate access to alternative services. It also compared Canadian Institute for Health information (CIHI) data to our survey to determine whether they provide comparable information for monitoring efficiency. Inappropriate acute care days were identified using a modified Appropriateness Evaluation Protocol. Average length of stay (ALOS) by service for each of the province's acute care institutions was also reviewed from 1993-94 to 1995-96 using the CIHI database. Hospital admissions were Inappropriate in 14.2 percent of 2,007 cases. Of the 14,194 days of care, 22.8 percent were inappropriate, with most (16.4 percent) being avoidable with better use of existing resources. Of the inappropriate days, 49.2 percent related to physicians' functions. The provincial ALOS fell from 5.70 days in 1993-94 to 5.39 days in 1995-96, but remains 10.5 percent above the national average.