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Biomedical subjects

John E Wennberg

Publications and source records attributed to John E Wennberg.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Bereaved family member perceptions of quality of end-of-life care in U.S. regions with high and low usage of intensive care unit care.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the quality of end-of-life care of persons dying in regions of differing practice intensity. DESIGN: Mortality follow-back survey. SETTING: Geographic regions in the highest and lowest deciles of intensive care unit (ICU) use. PARTICIPANTS: Bereaved family member or other knowledgeable informants. MEASUREMENTS: Unmet needs, concerns, and rating of quality of end-of-life care in five domains (physical comfort and emotional support of the decedent, shared decision-making, treatment of the dying person with respect, providing information and emotional support to family members). RESULTS: Decedents in high- (n=365) and low-intensity (n=413) hospital service areas (HSAs) did not differ in age, sex, education, marital status, leading causes of death, or the degree to which death was expected, but those in the high-intensity ICU HSAs were more likely to be black and to live in nonrural areas. Respondents in high-intensity HSAs were more likely to report that care was of lower quality in each domain, and these differences were statistically significant in three of five domains. Respondents from high-intensity HSAs were more likely to report inadequate emotional support for the decedent (relative risk (RR)=1.2, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.0-1.4), concerns with shared decision-making (RR=1.8, 95% CI=1.0-2.9), inadequate information about what to expect (RR=1.5, 95% CI=1.3-1.8), and failure to treat the decedent with respect (RR=1.4, 95% CI=1.0-1.9). Overall ratings of the quality of end-of-life care were also significantly lower in high-intensity HSAs. CONCLUSION: Dying in regions with a higher use of ICU care is not associated with improved perceptions of quality of end-of-life care.

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PubMed2004

Use of hospitals, physician visits, and hospice care during last six months of life among cohorts loyal to highly respected hospitals in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the use of healthcare resources during the last six months of life among patients of US hospitals with strong reputations for high quality care in managing chronic illness. DESIGN: Retrospective cohort study based on claims data from the US Medicare programme. PARTICIPANTS: Cohorts receiving most of their hospital care from 77 hospitals that appeared on the 2001 US News and World Report "best hospitals" list for heart and pulmonary disease, cancer, and geriatric services. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Use of healthcare resources in the last six months of life: number of days spent in hospital and in intensive care units; number of physician visits; percentage of patients seeing 10 or more physicians; percentage enrolled in hospice. Terminal care: percentage of deaths occurring in hospital; percentage of deaths occurring in association with a stay in an intensive care unit. RESULTS: Extensive variation in each measure existed among the 77 hospital cohorts. Days in hospital per decedent ranged from 9.4 to 27.1 (interquartile range 11.6-16.1); days in intensive care units ranged from 1.6 to 9.5 (2.6-4.5); number of physician visits ranged from 17.6 to 76.2 (25.5-39.5); percentage of patients seeing 10 or more physicians ranged from 16.9% to 58.5% (29.4-43.4%); and hospice enrollment ranged from 10.8% to 43.8% (22.0-32.0%). The percentage of deaths occurring in hospital ranged from 15.9% to 55.6% (35.4-43.1%), and the percentage of deaths associated with a stay in intensive care ranged from 8.4% to 36.8% (20.2-27.1%). CONCLUSION: Striking variation exists in the utilisation of end of life care among US medical centres with strong national reputations for clinical care.

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PubMed2004

Practice variations and health care reform: connecting the dots.

Unwarranted variation is a ubiquitous feature of U.S. health care. Remedies for variations exist, and several are described in the current collection of Health Affairs papers. Several obstacles stand in the way of widespread adoption of these remedies: (1) a quality agenda that has yet to focus on improving the quality of patient decision making; (2) economic incentives that do not reward exemplary practice; and (3) the poor state of clinical science. Medicare reform legislation creates the opportunity for a demonstration project to redesign health care to address these barriers. We also must grapple with the cultural bias that more care is better and that physicians must know best.

Decision Making↗
PubMed2004

Who you are and where you live: how race and geography affect the treatment of medicare beneficiaries.

The existence of overall racial and ethnic disparities in health care is well documented, but this average effect masks variation across regions and types of care. Medicare claims data are used to document the extent of these variations. Regions with high racial disparities in one procedure are not more likely to be high in other procedures. Unusually large racial disparities in surgery are often the result of high white rates rather than low black rates. Differences in end-of-life care are driven more by residence than by race. Policies should focus on getting the rates right, rather than solely on racial differences.

Health Policy↗
PubMed2004

Use of Medicare claims data to monitor provider-specific performance among patients with severe chronic illness.

This study illustrates that Medicare claims can be used to measure population-based, provider-specific rates of resource inputs, utilization, and Medicare spending. The target populations are seventy-seven cohorts of chronically ill Medicare enrollees who received most of their care from seventy-seven well-known U.S. hospitals. Striking variations are documented in resource inputs and use of services during the last six months of life. The patterns of care seen in the progression of chronic illness correlate highly with care received during previous periods. We believe that hospital-specific measures can be helpful in identifying providers with acceptable quality indices who are also relatively efficient in managing chronic illness.

Chronic Disease↗
PubMed2004

Trends and geographic variations in major surgery for degenerative diseases of the hip, knee, and spine.

Although Medicare rates for surgery to treat degenerative diseases of the hip, knee, and spine are highly variable among hospital referral regions (HRRs), the relative risk for surgery within a region is constant from year to year-a large majority of the variation in surgery in 2000--01 is "explained" by the variation in rates in 1992--93. The within-region constancy in rates for highly variable procedures (the "surgical signature") is illustrated for South Florida HRRs. Involving the patient in choice of treatments (shared decision making) and outcomes research are promising strategies for reducing unwarranted regional variation and local constancy in surgery risk.

Florida↗
PubMed2004

Unwarranted variations in the quality of health care: can the law help medicine provide a remedy/remedies?

This Article reviews the essential findings of studies of variations in quality of care according to three categories of care: effective care, preference-sensitive care, and supply-sensitive care. It argues that malpractice liability and informed consent laws should be based on standards of practice that are appropriate to each category of care. In the case of effective care, the legal standard should be that virtually all of those in need should receive the treatment, whether or not it is currently customary to provide it. In the case of preference-sensitive care, the law should recognize the failure of the doctrine of informed consent to assure that patient preferences are respected in choice of treatment; we suggest that the law adopt a standard of informed patient choice in which patients are invited, not merely to consent to a recommended treatment, but to choose the treatment that best advances their preferences. In the case of supply-sensitive care, we suggest that physicians who seek to adopt more conservative patterns of practice be protected under the "respectable minority" or "two schools of thought" doctrine.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMed2003

Racial, ethnic, and geographic disparities in rates of knee arthroplasty among Medicare patients.

BACKGROUND: There are large variations in the use of knee arthroplasty among Medicare enrollees according to race or ethnic group and sex. Are racial and ethnic disparities more pronounced in some regions than in others, and if so, why? METHODS: We used all Medicare fee-for-service claims data for 1998 through 2000 to determine the incidence of knee arthroplasty according to Hospital Referral Region, sex, and race or ethnic group. A total of 430,726 knee arthroplasties were performed during the three-year study period. RESULTS: At the national level, the annual rate of knee arthroplasty was higher for non-Hispanic white women (5.97 procedures per 1000) than for Hispanic women (5.37 per 1000) and black women (4.84 per 1000). The rate for non-Hispanic white men (4.82 procedures per 1000) was higher than that for Hispanic men (3.46 per 1000) and more than double that for black men (1.84 per 1000). The rates were significantly lower for black men than for non-Hispanic white men in nearly every region of the country (P<0.05). For the Hispanic population and for black women, racial or ethnic disparities at the national level were due in part to geographic differences rather than to differences in the rates for different racial and ethnic groups within geographic areas. Residential segregation and low income levels contributed to racial and ethnic disparities in arthroplasty rates. CONCLUSIONS: In the Medicare population, the rate of surgical treatment for osteoarthritis of the knee varies dramatically according to sex, race or ethnic group, and region. These variations underscore the importance of geography and sex in determining racial or ethnic barriers to health care.

Arthroplasty, Replacement, Knee↗
PubMed2002

Design of the Spine Patient outcomes Research Trial (SPORT).

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND DATA: The Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT) was designed to assess the relative efficacy and cost-effectiveness of surgical and nonsurgical approaches to the treatment of common conditions associated with low back and leg pain. OBJECTIVES: To describe the rationale and design of the SPORT project and to discuss its strengths and limitations. STUDY DESIGN: Descriptive. METHODS: First, the authors explain the rationale for embarking on SPORT, i.e., deficiencies in the existing scientific knowledge base for treatment of these conditions. Second, the authors describe the design of SPORT, including topics such as specific aims, participating sites, study population, recruitment and enrollment, study interventions, follow-up, outcomes, statistical analysis, and study governance and organization. Finally, issues that complicate the performance of randomized trials in surgery as they relate to the design and conduct of SPORT are discussed. RESULTS: The SPORT project is being conducted at 11 clinical centers around the United States. It involves the simultaneous conduct of three multicenter, randomized, controlled clinical trials. The study includes patients with the three most common diagnoses for which spine surgery is performed: intervertebral disc herniation, spinal stenosis, and degenerative spondylolisthesis, and it compares the most commonly used standard surgical and nonsurgical treatments for patients with these diagnoses. By the end of enrollment the authors anticipate a total of 500 patients with intervertebral disc herniation, 370 patients with spinal stenosis, and 300 patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis in the randomized trials. Patients who meet the eligibility criteria but decline to be randomized are invited to participate in an observational cohort study. Patients are being followed for a minimum of 24 months with visits scheduled at 6 weeks and at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study will provide high-quality scientific evidence to aid clinical decision-making and improve treatment outcomes for these common, costly, and, in some instances, debilitating conditions.

Cost-Benefit Analysis↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Postmarketing surveillance of medical devices using Medicare claims.

The current system of postmarketing surveillance of high-risk medical devices could be improved by taking advantage of the administrative billing data collected by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to systematically monitor for adverse events that may signal device-related problems. In this paper we use the current concern about the excess risk associated with drug-eluting coronary stents to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of claims data for postmarketing surveillance and propose a pilot collaboration between government, industry, and academe to systematically explore the use of Medicare claims data for this purpose.

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PubMedDate not supplied

End-of-life care at academic medical centers: implications for future workforce requirements.

The expansion of U.S. physician workforce training has been justified on the basis of population growth, technological innovation, and economic expansion. Our analyses found threefold differences in physician full-time-equivalent (FTE) inputs for Medicare cohorts cared for at academic medical centers (AMCs); AMC inputs were highly correlated with the number of physician FTEs per Medicare beneficiary in AMC regions. Given the apparent inefficiency of current physician practices, the supply pipeline is sufficient to meet future needs through 2020, with adoption of the workforce deployment patterns now seen among AMCs and regions dominated by large group practices.

Academic Medical Centers↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Geography and the debate over Medicare reform.

Medicare spending varies more than twofold among regions, and the variations persist even after differences in health are corrected for. Higher levels of Medicare spending are due largely to increased use of "supply-sensitive" services--physician visits, specialist consultations, and hospitalizations, particularly for those with chronic illnesses or in their last six months of life. Also, higher spending does not result in more effective care, elevated rates of elective surgery, or better health outcomes. To improve the quality and efficiency of care, we propose a new approach to Medicare reform based on the principles of shared decision making and the promotion of centers of medical excellence. We suggest that our proposal be tested in a major demonstration project

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