Public Health Interventions in the Emergency Department: A Framework for Evaluation.

Emergency departments (ED) in the United States serve a dual role in public health: a portal of entry to the health system and a safety net for the community at large. Public health officials often target the ED for public health interventions due to the perception that it is uniquely able to reach underserved populations. However, under time and resource constraints, emergency physicians and public health officials must make calculated decisions in choosing which interventions in their local context could provide maximal impact to achieve public health benefit. We identify how decisions regarding public health interventions are affected by considerations of cost, time, and available personnel, and further consider the role of local community needs, health department goals, and political environment. We describe a sample of ED-based public health interventions and demonstrate how to use a proposed framework to assess interventions. We posit a series of questions and variables to consider: local disease prevalence; ability of the ED to perform the intervention; relative efficacy of the ED vs community partnerships as the primary intervention location; and expected outcomes. In using this framework, clinicians should be empowered to improve the public health in their communities.

How health literacy is taught and evaluated in dentistry, medicine, nursing, law, pharmacy, public health, and social work: a narrative review.

BACKGROUND: This narrative review examined the published peer-reviewed literature on how health literacy is taught and evaluated in seven health professional and adjacent disciplines: dentistry, medicine, nursing, law, pharmacy, public health, and social work. The study objectives were to assess how students are educated about health literacy and how their health literacy education and skills are evaluated. METHODS: Study selection followed guidelines outlined in PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses). We searched PubMed, CINAHL, SocINDEX (EBSCOhost), Lexis Advance and Public Health (ProQuest) for English-language publications of health literacy education studies across seven disciplines at U.S.-based institutions. Inclusion criteria included: 1) methods describing a primary health literacy educational intervention, 2) professional education in one or more of the seven disciplines, 3) educational institutions in the United States, and 4) articles published in peer-reviewed journals between 2000 and 2020. RESULTS: The searches yielded 44 articles. Health literacy education is evident in six of the seven studied disciplines, and varies widely in the quality, quantity, timing and mode of education and evaluation. Despite the presence of health literacy accreditation requirements, none of the seven disciplines has developed and implemented a standard, rigorous health literacy education program for students. CONCLUSIONS: Graduating institutions and professional accreditation organizations that set the standards for education must lead the way by implementing upstream changes in health literacy professional education. Teaching health literacy to students in health professions is one strategy to help close gaps in patient/client professional communication for graduates and those they serve.

Health Care Leaders' Perspectives on the Maryland All-Payer Model.

Importance: Since 2014, all hospitals in Maryland have operated under an all-payer global budget system. Hospital global budgets have gained renewed attention as a strategy for constraining cost growth, improving patient outcomes, and preserving health care access in rural and underserved communities. Lessons from the implementation of the Maryland All-Payer Model (MDAPM) may have implications for policy makers, payers, and hospitals in other settings seeking to adopt global budgets or other value-based payment models. Objective: To examine perspectives on the implementation of the MDAPM among health care leaders who participated in its design and execution. Design Setting and Participants: This qualitative study with semistructured telephone interviews was conducted from November 1, 2019, to February 11, 2020. The purposive sample of Maryland health care leaders represents diverse stakeholder groups, including hospitals, state government and regulatory agencies, the federal government, and payers. Main Outcomes and Measures: Key high-level themes were extracted from interviews using qualitative content analysis, with barriers and facilitators to implementation specified within each theme. Results: A total of 20 interviews were conducted with hospital leaders (n = 6), state regulators (n = 4), federal regulators (n = 4), payer representatives (n = 3), and state leaders (n = 3). Key themes were labeled as (1) expectations (setting bold yet achievable goals), (2) autonomy (allowing hospitals to follow individual strategies within MDAPM parameters), (3) communication (encouraging early and ongoing communication between stakeholders), (4) actionable data (sharing useful hospital and patient-level data between stakeholders), (5) global budget calibration (anticipating technical challenges when negotiating budgets for individual hospitals), and (6) shared commitment to change (harnessing collective motivation for system change). Together, these themes suggest that implementing the payment model followed an evolving and collaborative process that requires stakeholder communication, data to guide decisions, and commitment to operating within the new payment system. Conclusions and Relevance: The implementation of hospital global budgets in the state of Maryland offers generalizable lessons that can inform the evolution and expansion of this approach to value-based payment in other states and settings.