Monitoring Changes in Hospital Utilization

This study focused on recent issues concerning health care utilization at the community level. The study focused on developments in hospital inpatient lengths of stay and discharges. The analysis in the study demonstrated that hospital lengths of stay in the metropolitan area of Syracuse, New York increased by 25.0 percent between 2019 and 2023. This has been a notable increase in the movement of patients with this indicator. The analysis also demonstrated that numbers of inpatient discharges for these hospital services declined substantially during the same periods. Review of the data suggested that this information has been related. The increase in hospital lengths of stay has been related to a rise in numbers of patients at high severity of illness. They have also been associated with a decline in numbers of patients at low severity.

Implementation of a High-Risk Outpatient Clinic for Children with Complex Congenital Heart Disease in a Reference Service in Brazil

Background:Children with congenital heart disease(CHD),even after surgical approaches,and especially those who undergo staged procedures in thefirst months of life,remain vulnerable to readmissions and complications,requiring very close monitoring and differentiated intervention strategies.Methods:Descriptive and exploratory study,of the experience report type,which presents the process of building the high-risk outpatient clinic for complex congenital heart diseases(AAR)at the Instituto do Coração(InCor).Results:Report of the path taken to structure the AAR,demonstrating the organization,interface with the multidisciplinary team,admission and discharge criteria,training,and patient profile.In thesefive years of care,275 patients were treated,59.65%with biventricular interstage physiology,followed by univentricular interstage physiology(34.55%),residual defects after surgical procedures(3.63%),tumors with risk of mechanical obstruction(1.45%)and patients with an intrauterine approach(0.72%).The significant number of critical patients who were successfully discharged from hospital(44.72%),the low mortality rate due to sudden deaths at home and the high adherence to follow-up cor-roborate the impact of this specialized assistance.Conclusions:Despite the limitations of the study,this experi-ence report showed that with few resources,there is the possibility of organizing an AAR with differentiated care,with the objective of early detection and treatment of residual injuries,identification of early interventions,edu-cation of parents for follow-up of their children,resulting in individualized treatment,promoting a better quality of life for this population.

Evaluating Health Planning Issues at the Community Level

This study was a brief review of issues related to health planning in the metropolitan area of Syracuse, New York. It suggested that population demographics and health care utilization can have an impact on the use of services at the community level. The study suggested that the utilization of services can be associated with patient demographics. In this study, younger populations were associated with lower use of hospital inpatient care. The data have also suggested that larger numbers of younger populations are not necessarily related to opportunities for expanding local health care providers. Younger populations can be associated with lower per capita use of services. The data demonstrated that there were substantial reductions in hospital discharges for adult medicine. Total discharges declined by 3999 patients between the seven months in 2019 and 2023. The data also demonstrated that there were notable reductions in hospital discharges for adult surgery.

Impact of cardiologist intervention on guideline-directed use of statin therapy

BACKGROUND Statins have an important and well-established role in the prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease(ASCVD).However,several studies have reported widespread underuse of statins in various practice settings and populations.Review of relevant literature reveals opportunities for improvement in the implementation of guideline-directed statin therapy(GDST).AIM To examine the impact of cardiologist intervention on the use of GDST in the ambulatory setting.METHODS Patients with at least one encounter at the adult Internal Medicine Clinic(IMC)and/or Cardiology Clinic(CC),who had an available serum cholesterol test performed,were evaluated.The 2 comparison groups were defined as:(1)Patients only seen by IMC;and(2)Patients seen by both IMC and CC.Patients were excluded if variables needed for calculation of ASCVD risk scores were lacking,and if demographic information lacked guideline-directed treatment recommendations.Data were analyzed using student t-tests or χ^2,as appropriate.Analysis of Variance was used to compare rates of adherence to GDST.RESULTS A total of 268 patients met the inclusion criteria for this study;211 in the IMC group and 57 in the IMC-CC group.Overall,56%of patients were female,mean age 56 years(±10.65,SD),22%Black or African American,56%Hispanic/Latino,14%had clinical ASCVD,13%current smokers,66%diabetic and 63%hypertensive.Statin use was observed in 55%(n=147/268)of the entire patient cohort.In the IMC-CC group,73.6%(n=42/57)of patients were prescribed statin therapy compared to 50.7%(n=107/211)of patients in the IMC group(P=0.002).In terms of appropriate statin use based on guidelines,there was no statistical difference between groups[IMC-CC group 61.4%(n=35/57)vs IMC group,55.5%(n=117/211),P=0.421].Patients in the IMC-CC group were older,had more cardiac risk factors and had higher proportions of non-white patients compared to the IMC group(P<0.02,all).CONCLUSION Although overall use of GDST was suboptimal,there was no statistical difference in appropriate statin use based on guidelines between groups managed by general internists alone or co-managed with a cardiologist.These findings highlight the need to design and implement strategies to improve adherence rates to GDST across all specialties.