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Measuring Health Equity for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions in a Large Integrated Health Care System: The Development of an Index.

ABSTRACT: Disparities in outcomes for preventive and primary health care services often result when vulnerable patients rely on episodic encounters for emergency services that do not meet their long-term health needs. Understanding health outcomes in socially or economically disadvantaged subgroups is crucial to improving community health, and it requires innovative analytics and dynamic application of clinical and population data. While it is common practice to use proxy indicators, such as quality of life and mortality, when discussing health equity, these have shown limited utility and are rarely applied at a population-level within a health system. Therefore, we designed and implemented an index, calculated as the ratio of observed-to-expected encounters, to identify and quantify health inequalities in health care systems. Providing equitable care, as measured by health outcomes, is analogous to precision medicine applied to social determinants. For health systems, the use of this index will facilitate the development of specially-tailored interventions to address inequity and provides a tool to measure the impact of such programs.

SUBMITTER: Pressman A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6450454 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Measuring Health Equity for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions in a Large Integrated Health Care System: The Development of an Index.

Pressman Alice A Lockhart Stephen S Petersen John J Robinson Sarah S Moreno Maria M Azar Kristen M J KMJ

Health equity 20190403 1

Disparities in outcomes for preventive and primary health care services often result when vulnerable patients rely on episodic encounters for emergency services that do not meet their long-term health needs. Understanding health outcomes in socially or economically disadvantaged subgroups is crucial to improving community health, and it requires innovative analytics and dynamic application of clinical and population data. While it is common practice to use proxy indicators, such as quality of li ...[more]

PMID: 30963142

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions (ACSCs) are health conditions for which adequate management, treatment and interventions delivered in the ambulatory care setting could potentially prevent hospitalization. Which conditions are sensitive to ambulatory care varies according to the scope of health care services and the context in which the indicator is used. The need for a country-specific validated list for Portugal has already been identified, but currently no national list exists. The objective of this study was to develop a list of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions for Portugal. METHODS:A modified web-based Delphi panel approach was designed, in order to determine which conditions can be considered ACSCs in the Portuguese adult population. The selected experts were general practitioners and internal medicine physicians identified by the most relevant Portuguese scientific societies. Experts were presented with previously identified ACSC and asked to select which could be accepted in the Portuguese context. They were also asked to identify other conditions they considered relevant. We estimated the number and cost of ACSC hospitalizations in 2017 in Portugal according to the identified conditions. RESULTS:After three rounds the experts agreed on 34 of the 45 initially proposed items. Fourteen new conditions were proposed and four achieved consensus, namely uterine cervical cancer, colorectal cancer, thromboembolic venous disease and voluntary termination of pregnancy. In 2017 133,427 hospitalizations were for ACSC (15.7% of all hospitalizations). This represents a rate of 1685 per 100,000 adults. The most frequent diagnosis were pneumonia, heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease/chronic bronchitis, urinary tract infection, colorectal cancer, hypertensive disease atrial fibrillation and complications of diabetes mellitus. CONCLUSIONS:New ACSC were identified. It is expected that this list could be used henceforward by epidemiologic studies, health services research and for healthcare management purposes. ACSC lists should be updated frequently. Further research is necessary to increase the specificity of ACSC hospitalizations as an indicator of healthcare performance.

Project description:BACKGROUND:Due to stagnating resources and an increase in staff workload, the quality of Finnish primary health care (PHC) is claimed to have deteriorated slowly. With a decentralised PHC organisation and lack of national stewardship, it is likely that municipalities have adopted different coping strategies, predisposing them to geographic disparities. To assess whether these disparities emerge, we analysed health centre area trajectories in hospitalisations due to ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs). METHODS:ACSCs, a proxy for PHC quality, comprises conditions in which hospitalisation could be avoided by timely care. We obtained ACSCs of the total Finnish population aged ?20 for the years 1996-2013 from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register, and divided them into subgroups of acute, chronic and vaccine-preventable causes, and calculated annual age-standardised ACSC rates by gender in health centre areas. Using these rates, we conducted trajectory analyses for identifying health centre area clusters using group-based trajectory modelling. Further, we applied area-level factors to describe the distribution of health centre areas on these trajectories. RESULTS:Three trajectories - and thus separate clusters of health centre areas - emerged with different levels and trends of ACSC rates. During the study period, chronic ACSC rates decreased (40-63%) within each of the clusters, acute ACSC rates remained stable and vaccine-preventable ACSC rates increased (1-41%). While disparities in rate differences in chronic ACSC rates between trajectories narrowed, in the two other ACSC subgroups they increased. Disparities in standardised rate ratios increased in vaccine-preventable and acute ACSC rates between northern cluster and the two other clusters. Compared to the south-western cluster, 13-16% of health centre areas, in rural northern cluster, had 47-92% higher ACSC rates - but also the highest level of morbidity, most limitations on activities of daily living and highest PHC inpatient ward usage as well as the lowest education levels and private health and dental care usage. CONCLUSIONS:We identified three differing trajectories of time trends for ACSC rates, suggesting that the quality of care, particularly in northern Finland health centre areas, may have lagged behind the general improvements. This calls for further investments to strengthen rural area PHC.

Project description:BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic and the need for physical distancing has led to rapid uptake of virtual visits to deliver ambulatory health care. Despite widespread adoption, there has been limited evaluation of the quality of care being delivered through virtual modalities for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs).ObjectiveTo characterize patients' and providers' experiences with the quality and sustainability of virtual care for ACSCs.DesignThis was a multi-method study utilizing quantitative and qualitative data from patient surveys, provider surveys, and provider focus groups at a large academic ambulatory care hospital between May 2020 and June 2021. We included patients and providers utilizing telephone or video visits for the following ACSCs: hypertension, angina, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or asthma.Main measuresQuantitative and qualitative patient and provider survey responses were mapped to the Six Domains of Healthcare Quality framework. Provider focus groups were coded to identify themes within each quality domain.Key resultsSurveys were completed by 110/352 (31%) consenting patients and 20/61 (33%) providers. 5 provider focus groups were held with 14 participants. Patients found virtual visits to be generally more convenient than in-person visits for ACSCs. The perceived effectiveness of virtual visits was dependent on the clinical and social complexity of individual encounters. Respondents reported difficulty forming effective patient-provider relationships in the virtual environment. Patients and providers felt that virtual care has potential to both alleviate and exacerbate structural barriers to equitable access to care.ConclusionsIn a large academic ambulatory care hospital, patients and providers experienced the quality of virtual visits for the management of ACSCs to be variable depending on the biopsychosocial complexity of the individual encounter. Our findings in each quality domain highlight key considerations for patients, providers and institutions to uphold the quality of virtual care for ACSCs.

Project description:Introduction: Achieving equity in health care remains a challenge for health care systems worldwide and marked inequities in access and quality of care persist. Identifying health care equity indicators is an important first step in integrating the concept of equity into assessments of health care system performance, particularly in emergency care. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of administrative data-derived health care equity indicators and their association with socioeconomic determinants of health (SEDH) in emergency care settings. Following PRISMA-Equity reporting guidelines, Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, and Web of Science were searched for relevant studies. The outcomes of interest were indicators of health care equity and the associated SEDH they examine. Results: Among 29 studies identified, 14 equity indicators were identified and grouped into four categories that reflect the patient emergency care pathway. Total emergency department (ED) visits and ambulatory care-sensitive condition-related ED visits were the two most frequently used equity indicators. The studies analyzed equity based on seven SEDH: social deprivation, income, education level, social class, insurance coverage, health literacy, and financial and nonfinancial barriers. Despite some conflicting results, all identified SEDH are associated with inequalities in access to and use of emergency care. Conclusion: The use of administrative data-derived indicators in combination with identified SEDH could improve the measurement of health care equity in emergency care settings across health care systems worldwide. Using a combination of indicators is likely to lead to a more comprehensive, well-rounded measurement of health care equity than using any one indicator in isolation. Although studies analyzed focused on emergency care settings, it seems possible to extrapolate these indicators to measure equity in other areas of the health care system. Further studies elucidating root causes of health inequities in and outside the health care system are needed.

Project description:ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the suitability of existing definitions of ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC) in the setting of an emergency department (ED) by assessing ACSC prevalence in patients admitted to hospital after their ED stay. The secondary aim was to identify ACSC suitable for specific application in the ED setting.DesignObservational clinical study with secondary health data.SettingTwo EDs of the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin.ParticipantsAll medical ED patients of the 'The Charité Emergency Medicine Study' (CHARITEM) study, who were admitted as inpatients during the 1-year study period (n=13 536).Outcome measuresPrevalence of ACSC.ResultsPrevalence of ACSC in the study population differed significantly depending on the respective ACSC set used. Prevalence ranged between 19.1% (95% CI 18.4% to 19.8%; n=2586) using the definition by Albrecht et al and 36.6% (95% CI 35.8% to 37.5%; n=4960) using the definition of Naumann et al. (p<0.001). Overall ACSC prevalence (ie, when using all diagnoses used in any of the assessed ACSC-definitions) was 48.1% (95% CI 47.2% to 48.9%; n=6505). Some frequently observed diagnoses such as 'convulsion and epilepsy' (prevalence: 3.4%, 95% CI 3.1% to 3.7%; n=455), 'diseases of the urinary system' (prevalence: 1.4%; 95% CI 1.2% to 1.6%; n=191) or 'atrial fibrillation and flutter' (prevalence: 1.0%, 95% CI 0.8% to 1.2%, n=134) are not included in all of the current ACSC definitions.ConclusionsThe results highlight the need for an optimised, ED-specific ACSC definition. Particular ACSC diagnoses (such as 'convulsion and epilepsy' or 'diseases of the urinary system' and others) seem to be of special relevance in an ED population but are not included in all available ACSC definitions. Further research towards the development of a suitable and specific ACSC definition for research in the ED setting seems warranted.Trial registrationGerman Clinical Trials Register Deutsches Register für Klinische Studien: DRKS-ID: DRKS00000261.

Dataset Information

Measuring Health Equity for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions in a Large Integrated Health Care System: The Development of an Index.

Publications

Measuring Health Equity for Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions in a Large Integrated Health Care System: The Development of an Index.

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