Clinical outcomes in pediatric hemodialysis patients in the USA: lessons from CMS’ ESRD CPM Project

Although prospective randomized trials have provided important information and allowed the development of evidence-based guidelines in adult hemodialysis (HD) patients, with approximately 800 prevalent pediatric HD patients in the United States, such studies are difficult to perform in this population. Observational data obtained through the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS’) End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Clinical Performance Measures (CPM) Project have allowed description of the clinical care provided to pediatric HD patients as well as identification of risk factors for failure to reach adult targets for clinical parameters such as hemoglobin, single-pool Kt/V (spKt/V) and serum albumin. In addition, studies linking data from the ESRD CPM Project and the United States Renal Data System have allowed evaluation of associations between achievement of those targets and the outcomes of hospitalization and death. The results of those studies, while unable to prove cause and effect, suggest that the adult ESRD CPM targets may assist in identifying pediatric HD patients at risk for poor outcomes

Panel Discussion: The Snowden Disclosures and Framing the Cybersurveillance Debate

Moderated by Russell A. Miller, Washington and Lee University School of La

Health Services Research in a Quick and Dirty World: the New York City Hospital Occupancy Crisis

In 1987/1988, New York City experienced an unexpected health care crisis: a severe and prolonged community-wide shortage of inpatient hospital beds. A rapid rise in hospital occupancy rates dramatically ended a long-term decline in hospital utilization and left health care providers and policymakers baffled about both cause and remedy. This article describes the course of a short-term, intensive, mid-crisis study that unraveled the reasons for the high occupancy rates. As a case study for a research effort that successfully yielded valid and timely results, this article illuminates the research design and methodological decisions that lay behind the findings and discusses the implications of those decisions. Key to the success of the study were a mandate to diagnose the crisis, a statewide patient discharge data base, our previous hands-on experience with that data base, active support for the study from the community of health care providers, and strong results

DRGs in hospital management.

One of the traditional tasks of district and hospital managers has been to attempt to explain variations in average length of stay, average cost per day and average cost per case, between different hospitals. The need for such explanations has become more acute as a result of the recent emphasis on 'performance indicators' as measures of the efficiency of hospitals. The task of explaining these differences has not been rendered easier by the lack of appropriate management information for this purpose