One focus of my work on systems-level determinants of care is definitional: developing and operationalizing methods for describing healthcare delivery systems characteristics. These include several approaches to measuring resource supply-demand, known in emergency department research as “crowding” and “surge”, and in hospital-based research as “occupancy”, as well as using a stakeholder-engagement process to develop a measure of patient-centered medical home (PCMH) characteristics relevant to the practices participating in the Scalable Architecture for Federated Therapeutic Inquiries Network (SAFTINet).
One set of papers focused on defining measures of emergency department crowding. I have described various approaches to operationalizing crowding measures using data available in an electronic health record, and have validated these against quality of care as well as against provider perception of crowding:
- Sills MR, Ranade D, Fairclough DL, Kahn MG. Emergency department crowding is associated with decreased quality of care for children with acute asthma. Annals of Emergency Medicine. 2011 Feb;18(2):158-66. Available at http://dy3uq8jh2v.search.serialssolutions.com/?sid=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:21035903
- Sills MR, Ranade D, Kahn MG, Mitchell MS, Fairclough DL. Emergency Department Crowding is Associated with Decreased Quality of Analgesia Delivery for Children with Pain Related to Acute, Isolated Long-bone Fractures. Academic Emergency Medicine. 2011 Dec;18(12):1330-1338. Available at http://dy3uq8jh2v.search.serialssolutions.com/?sid=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:22168199
I also explored approaches to defining ED and inpatient capacity at a multicenter network of children’s hospitals during the 2009 influenza H1N1 pandemic.
- Sills MR, Hall M, Simon HK, Fieldston ES, Walter N, Levin JE, Brogan TV, Hain PD, Goodman DM, Fritch-Levens DD, Fagbuyi DB, Mundorff MB, Libby AM, Anderson HO, Padula WV, Shah SS. Resource burden at children’s hospitals experiencing surge volumes during the spring 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic. Academic Emergency Medicine. 2011 Feb;18(2):158-66. Available at http://dy3uq8jh2v.search.serialssolutions.com/?sid=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:21314775
- Sills MR, Hall M, Simon HK, Fieldston ES, Brogan TV, Hain PD, Fagbuyi DB, Mundorff MB, Shah SS. Limited Inpatient Capacity Reserve at Children’s Hospitals: Evaluation of the H1N1 Pandemic and Implications for Preparedness. Emerg Infect Dis. 2011 Sep;17(9):1685-91. Available at http://dy3uq8jh2v.search.serialssolutions.com/?sid=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:21888795
I also co-authored a framework for describing healthcare delivery systems, a publication requested by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality:
- Piña IL, Cohen P, Larson D, Marion L, Sills MR, Solberg L, Zerzan J. A Framework for Describing Health Care Delivery Organizations and Systems. American Journal of Public Health. 2014 Jun 12:e1-e10. Available at http://dy3uq8jh2v.search.serialssolutions.com/?sid=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:24922130
I also facilitated a stakeholder-engagement process to develop a measure of patient-centered medical home (PCMH) characteristics relevant to the practices participating in the Scalable Architecture for Federated Therapeutic Inquiries Network (SAFTINet). This work was described in a manuscript and national presentation, and is the focus of two manuscripts currently in revise-and-resubmit.
- Sills MR, Kwan BM, Yawn BP, Sauer BC, Fairclough DL, Federico MJ, Juarez-Colunga E, Schilling LM. Medical home characteristics and asthma control: a prospective, observational cohort study protocol. eGEMs (Generating Evidence &Methods to improve patient outcomes): Vol. 1: Iss. 3, Article 3. Available at: http://dy3uq8jh2v.search.serialssolutions.com/?sid=Entrez:PubMed&id=pmid:25848577