Faculty Bibliography

The usefulness of patient decision aids (PtDAs) is well documented, yet they are not in widespread use. Barriers include assuring balance and fairness (auspices matter), the cost of producing and maintaining them, and getting them into the hands of patients at the right time. The Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making and its for-profit partner, Health Dialog, have developed a creative business model that helps overcome these barriers and has greatly expanded the reach of decision aids.

Poor, uninsured, and minority patients depend disproportionately on hospital outpatient departments (OPDs) and freestanding health centers for ambulatory care. These providers confront significant challenges, including limited resources, greater demand for services, and the need to improve quality and patient satisfaction. The authors use a survey of patients in OPDs and health centers in New York City to determine which aspects of the ambulatory care visit have the greatest influence on patients' overall site evaluation. The personal interaction between patients and physicians, provider continuity, and the general cleanliness/appearance of the facility stand out as high priorities. Access to services and interactions with other facility staff are of significant, although lesser, importance. These findings suggest ways to restructure the delivery of care so that it is more responsive to the concerns of low-income patients.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that some disparities in health outcomes for vulnerable populations relate to performance of providers. Based on analysis of Medicaid claims records, large differences in performance among primary care providers are documented for New York City patients, suggesting the need for better evidence in making management decisions.

A primary goal of the Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference, "The Unraveling Safety Net: Research Opportunities and Priorities," was to explore a formal research agenda for safety net research in emergency medicine. This paper represents the thoughts of active health services researchers regarding the structure and direction of such work, including some examples from their own research. The current system for safety net care is described, and the emergency department is conceptualized as a window on safety net patients and systems, uniquely positioned to help study and coordinate integrated processes of care.

For the uninsured and many low-income people, hospital emergency departments (EDs) are a crucial entryway to the health care system. New York City's uninsured-27 percent of the nonelderly population in 1998, up from 20 percent in 1990-rely heavily on the ED for their medical care. Residents who regularly get their health care at an ED do not have regular doctors or continuity in their care, use costlier services, and often receive treatment that could have been avoided. Low-income New Yorkers may be depending on emergency department care even more as Medicaid enrollment declines and physician reimbursement rates are cut. This Issue Brief describes patterns of ED use through-out New York City and discusses some of the ways to improve the availability of primary care services and reduce ED dependency.