Twenty-four physician raters from two sites and two specialties judged whether clinical conditions were present based on reading chest radiograph reports. In these evaluations, physician raters were able to judge very reliably the presence of clinical conditions based on text reports. One to two raters were needed to achieve a reliability of 0.70, and six raters, on average, were required to achieve a reliability of 0.95. Iezzoni, L.I., Mackiernan, Y.D., Cahalane, M.J., and others. Screening inpatient quality using post-discharge events.
Patients leave before some complications are identified.
These researchers have developed a computerized method to screen for hospital complications using diagnosis and procedure codes from Medicare claims to define 50 complication screens. However, only 1.8 percent of procedural cases were flagged by the 17 procedural screens. The researchers conclude that while several CSP-O findings have construct validity, limitations of claims data raise concerns. Murray, M.D., Loos, B., Tu, W., and others. Work patterns of ambulatory care pharmacists with access to electronic guideline-based treatment suggestions.