Patient safety has been a priority in health care since Hippocrates admonished physicians to "first do no harm." Even so, the Institute of Medicine found in 2000 that approximately 98 000 patients die from preventable medical errors each year. Recent US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates project that 270 individuals die each day from hospital-acquired infections. Despite substantial efforts and investments, widespread and substantial improvement is not evident.

The problem is not in knowing what to do. Techniques, tools, and some best practices are available, and many health care organizations are making efforts to apply them. The importance of creating a "culture of safety" has also been noted. This involves continuous vigilance or mindfulness, learning, and accountability. A greater emphasis on safety over productivity and on teamwork over individual autonomy, increased standardization and simplification, and the implementation of an environment in which personnel are encouraged and feel comfortable to report errors and mistakes are needed.

Although creating a culture of safety is important, creating a culture of systems is a more fundamental challenge. In this Commentary, the term systems means systems of care that occur both within and across organizations. For example, in studies involving causes of adverse events in cardiac surgery, more than two-thirds were classified as nontechnical or systems-oriented issues including delays and missing equipment, and more of these problems occurred in cases with adverse outcomes than in successful cases. The greatest barrier to patient safety and safety culture is the inherent fragmentation of the US system of care. Safety will improve when the underlying system of care improves.

As promised during his campaign, and under pressure from many quarters, President-elect Barack Obama may seek badly needed changes in the way the United States finances and delivers health care. Responding to public interest and perceived need, several previous presidents have attempted to enact some kind of national health insurance: Harry Truman in the 1940s, Richard Nixon in the 1970s, and most recently Bill Clinton in the 1990s. These attempts went nowhere. In pursuing comprehensive health care reform, President-elect Obama should be aware of four major reasons why, in the past, we heard so much talk and saw so little action.

Abstract

The authors examined how the association between quality improvement (QI) implementation in hospitals and hospital clinical quality is moderated by hospital organizational and environmental context. The authors used Ordinary Least Squares regression analysis of 1,784 community hospitals to model seven quality indicators as a function of four measures of QI implementation and a variety of control variables. They found that forces that are external and internal to the hospital condition the impact of particular QI activities on quality indicators: specifically data use, statistical tool use, and organizational emphasis on Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). Results supported the proposition that QI implementation is unlikely to improve quality of care in hospital settings without a commensurate fit with the financial, strategic, and market imperatives faced by the hospital.

Black patients receiving dialysis for end-stage renal disease in the United States have lower mortality rates than white patients. Whether racial differences exist in mortality after acute renal failure is not known. We studied acute renal failure in patients hospitalized between 2000 and 2003 using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample and found that black patients had an 18% (95% confidence interval [CI] 16 to 21%) lower odds of death than white patients after adjusting for age, sex, comorbidity, and the need for mechanical ventilation. Similarly, among those with acute renal failure requiring dialysis, black patients had a 16% (95% CI 10 to 22%) lower odds of death than white patients. In stratified analyses of patients with acute renal failure, black patients had significantly lower adjusted odds of death than white patients in settings of coronary artery bypass grafting, cardiac catheterization, acute myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, pneumonia, sepsis, and gastrointestinal hemorrhage. Black patients were more likely than white patients to be treated in hospitals that care for a larger number of patients with acute renal failure, and black patients had lower in-hospital mortality than white patients in all four quartiles of hospital volume. In conclusion, in-hospital mortality is lower for black patients with acute renal failure than white patients. Future studies should assess the reasons for this difference.

We developed a mathematical model to simulate the impact of various partially effective preventive HIV vaccination scenarios in a population at high risk for heterosexually transmitted HIV. We considered an adult population defined by gender (male/female), disease stage (HIV-negative, HIV-positive, AIDS, and death), and vaccination status (unvaccinated/vaccinated) in Soweto, South Africa. Input data included initial HIV prevalence of 20% (women) and 12% (men), vaccination coverage of 75%, and exclusive male negotiation of condom use.

We explored how changes in vaccine efficacy and postvaccination condom use would affect HIV prevalence and total HIV infections prevented over a 10-year period. In the base-case scenario, a 40% effective HIV vaccine would avert 61,000 infections and reduce future HIV prevalence from 20% to 13%. A 25% increase (or decrease) in condom use among vaccinated individuals would instead avert 75,000 (or only 46,000) infections and reduce the HIV prevalence to 12% (or only 15%). Furthermore, certain combinations of increased risk behavior and vaccines with <43% efficacy could worsen the epidemic. Even modestly effective HIV vaccines can confer enormous benefits in terms of HIV infections averted and decreased HIV prevalence. However, programs to reduce risk behavior may be important components of successful vaccination campaigns.

Background: Women with acute myocardial infarction have a higher hospital mortality rate than men. This difference has been ascribed to their older age, more frequent comorbidities, and less frequent use of revascularization. The aim of this study is to assess these factors in relation to excess mortality in women.

Methods and Results All hospital admissions in France with a discharge diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction were extracted from the national payment database. Logistic regression on mortality was performed for age, comorbidities, and coronary interventions. Nonparametric microsimulation models estimated the percutaneous coronary intervention and mortality rates that women would experience if they were "treated like men." Data were analyzed from 74 389 patients hospitalized with acute myocardial infarction, 30.0% of whom were women. Women were older (75 versus 63 years of age; P0.001) and had a higher rate of hospital mortality (14.8% versus 6.1%; P0.0001) than men. Percutaneous coronary interventions were more frequent in men (7.4% versus 4.8%; 24.4% versus 14.2% with stent; P0.001). Mortality adjusted for age and comorbidities was higher in women (P0.001), with an excess adjusted absolute mortality of 1.95%. Simulation models related 0.46% of this excess to reduced use of procedures. Survival benefit related to percutaneous coronary intervention was lower among women.

Conclusions The difference in mortality rate between men and women with acute myocardial infarction is due largely to the different age structure of these populations. However, age-adjusted hospital mortality was higher for women and was associated with a lower rate of percutaneous coronary intervention. Simulations suggest that women would derive benefit from more frequent use of percutaneous coronary intervention, although these procedures appear less protective in women than in men.

Background: HIV prevention funds are often allocated by decision makers at multiple levels. High-level decision makers may allocate funds to regions, and regional decision makers then allocate those funds to specific programs. Often, funds are allocated proportionally (e.g., in proportion to HIV incidence) rather than efficiently (i.e., to maximize HIV infections averted). The authors investigate the impact of efficient and proportional allocation methods at 2 different decision levels.

Methods: The authors developed an optimization model of resource allocation at 2 levels-an aggregate upper level and multiple local levels-and considered efficient allocation and allocation proportional to HIV incidence. Using data from 40 U.S. states, they compared 4 strategies for allocating HIV prevention funds.

Results: The greatest health benefit (HIV infections averted) occurred when efficient allocations were made at both levels. When funds were allocated proportionally at the higher level and efficiently at the lower level, the health benefit was about 5% less than when efficient allocations were made at both levels. When funds were allocated efficiently at the higher level and proportionally at the lower level, the health benefit was 15% less than when efficient allocations were made at both levels. The least health benefit (23% less than when efficient allocations were made at both levels) occurred with proportional allocation at both levels.

Conclusions: Efficient allocation only at the higher level cannot overcome poor allocations at lower levels. Moreover, efficient allocation at the lower level is likely to yield greater gains than efficient allocation at the higher level. Thus, upper-level decision makers, such as donor organizations, should develop incentives to promote efficient allocation by lower-level decision makers.

Objectives: We examined the utility of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) universal screening program for military sexual violence.

Methods: We analyzed VHA administrative data for 185 880 women and 4139888 men who were veteran outpatients and were treated in VHA health care settings nationwide during 2003.

Results: Screening was completed for 70% of patients. Positive screens were associated with greater odds of virtually all categories of mental health comorbidities, including posttraumatic stress disorder (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]=8.83; 99% confidence interval [CI] = 8.34, 9.35 for women; AOR = 3.00; 99% CI = 2.89, 3.12 for men). Associations with medical comorbidities (e.g., chronic pulmonary disease, liver disease, and for women, weight conditions) were also observed. Significant gender differences emerged.

Conclusions: The VHA policies regarding military sexual trauma represent a uniquely comprehensive health care response to sexual trauma. Results attest to the feasibility of universal screening, which yields clinically significant information with particular relevance to mental health and behavioral health treatment. Women’s health literature regarding sexual trauma will be particularly important to inform health care services for both male and female veterans.