Hospitals & Health Systems

In order for health interventions to be effective, stakeholders must understand the deeply rooted systemic problems responsible for bottlenecks and miscommunications. The final blog in our series on implementation science examines how the study of participatory system dynamics can give implementation teams more insight into the root causes of health system pain points.

User-centered design helps make health interventions more engaging and effective for both patient participants and health care staff. How can implementation teams leverage user-centered design to achieve better outcomes?

A new study published in HSR, an official journal of AcademyHealth, found that urgent care centers reduce costly emergency department (ED) visits, especially in areas with long ED wait times as well as among Medicaid enrollees and the uninsured.

This ‘plain language summary’ considers a recent commentary from Zirui Song, M.D., Ph.D., in HSR, an official journal of AcademyHealth, that offers a broad review of the state of the science on Accountable Care Organizations, including a brief discussion of three new studies also published in the August issue.

Health system issues were featured at last month’s Annual Research Meeting (ARM) with a focus on equity, the impact of new data sources on decision making, and the need to advance the workforce.