Defining and Measuring Successful Emergency Care Networks: A Research Agenda |
| |
Authors: | Seth W. Glickman MD MBA M. Kit Delgado MD Jon Mark Hirshon MD MPH Judd E. Hollander MD Theodore J. Iwashyna MD PhD Alice K. Jacobs MD Austin S. Kilaru Scott A. Lorch MD MSCE Ryan L. Mutter PhD Sage R. Myers MD Pamela L. Owens PhD Michael P. Phelan MD Jesse M. Pines MD MBA MSCE Christopher W. Seymour MD N. Ewen Wang MD Charles C. Branas PhD |
| |
Affiliation: | 1. From the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of North Carolina School of Medicine (SWG), Chapel Hill, NC;2. the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research and the Division of Emergency Medicine (MKD) and the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine (NEW), Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, CA;3. the Department of Emergency Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine (JMH), Baltimore, MD;4. the Department of Emergency Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (JEH), Philadelphia, PA;5. the Department of Medicine, Boston University Medical Center (AKJ), Boston, MA;6. the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care, University of Michigan School of Medicine (TJI), Ann Arbor, MI;7. the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Neonatology and the Center for Outcomes Research (SAL), The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (SRM), Philadelphia PA;8. the Department of Health and Human Services (RLM, PLO), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD;9. the Cleveland Clinic Emergency Services Institute (MPP), Cleveland, OH;10. the Department of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine, and the Department of Health Policy, George Washington School of Public Health (JMP), Washington DC;11. the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine (CWS), Seattle, WA;12. and the Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology (SAL, CCB), University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (ASK), Philadelphia, PA.;13. This paper does not represent the policy of either the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) or the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and no official endorsement by AHRQ or DHHS is intended or should be inferred. |
| |
Abstract: | The demands on emergency services have grown relentlessly, and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) has asserted the need for “regionalized, coordinated, and accountable emergency care systems throughout the country.” There are large gaps in the evidence base needed to fix the problem of how emergency care is organized and delivered, and science is urgently needed to define and measure success in the emerging network of emergency care. In 2010, Academic Emergency Medicine convened a consensus conference entitled “Beyond Regionalization: Integrated Networks of Emergency Care.” This article is a product of the conference breakout session on “Defining and Measuring Successful Networks”; it explores the concept of integrated emergency care delivery and prioritizes a research agenda for how to best define and measure successful networks of emergency care. The authors discuss five key areas: 1) the fundamental metrics that are needed to measure networks across time-sensitive and non–time-sensitive conditions; 2) how networks can be scalable and nimble and can be creative in terms of best practices; 3) the potential unintended consequences of networks of emergency care; 4) the development of large-scale, yet feasible, network data systems; and 5) the linkage of data systems across the disease course. These knowledge gaps must be filled to improve the quality and efficiency of emergency care and to fulfill the IOM’s vision of regionalized, coordinated, and accountable emergency care systems. ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17:1297–1305 © 2010 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|