April 8, 2025, Issue #952

AHRQ Stats: Rates of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia

The rate of ventilator-associated pneumonia during inpatient stays increased by 20.1 percent between 2016 and 2019. (Source: AHRQ Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Statistical Brief #313, Prevalence and Burden of Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs), 2016-2021.)

Today's Headlines:

• AHRQ Celebrates National Public Health Week
• AHRQ-Funded Researchers Identify Barriers to Pediatric Mental Health Care in Emergency Department Workflows
• Recruitment for Safety Program for HAI Prevention Is Open Through June
• New Research and Evidence From AHRQ
• Register for Upcoming National Action Alliance Webinar

AHRQ Celebrates National Public Health Week

AHRQ-Funded Researchers Identify Barriers to Pediatric Mental Health Care in Emergency Department Workflows

Recruitment for Safety Program for HAI Prevention Is Open Through June

AHRQ is recruiting adult intensive care units (ICUs) and non-ICUs to participate in a free nine-month program to reduce central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) rates in acute care hospitals. Participants in the AHRQ Safety Program for HAI Prevention: CLABSI will receive free expert consultation to promote infection prevention procedures and patient safety culture, learn how to enhance teamwork and communication and receive regular benchmarking reports comparing their progress with similar units. Participants also will receive continuing education (CEU/CME) credits. Recruitment for the CLABSI cohort is open through June 11, 2025. An informational webinar is scheduled for April 21 from noon to 12:30 p.m. ET. Visit the website for more information about the program and upcoming informational webinars.

New Research and Evidence From AHRQ

• Systematic Review: Breastfeeding and Health Outcomes for Infants and Children
• Rapid Evidence Product: Making Healthcare Safer IV: Programs for Responding to Harms Experienced by Patients During Clinical Care
• Systematic Review (draft open for comment): Pharmacologic and Nonpharmacologic Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: 2025 Update of the Evidence Base for the PTSD Trials Standardized Data Repository
• Systematic Review (draft open for comment): Living Systematic Review on Cannabis and Other Plant-Based Treatments for Chronic Pain: 2025 Update
• Technical Brief: Pediatric Quality Measures Program 3.0: An Evidence Map of Measures for Vision, Hearing, and Developmental Screening and Followup

Register for Upcoming National Action Alliance Webinar

The “Safety Culture: Measuring and Responding” webinar is the final installment in the National Action Alliance Safety Culture in Healthcare series, taking place April 15 from noon to 1 p.m. ET. This session will explore strategies for assessing and strengthening safety culture using AHRQ’s Surveys on Patient Safety Culture® (SOPS®) and real-world applications. Attendees will gain insights into the latest pulse version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) and the role of data tracking in quality improvement. Register today to advance patient safety in your organization.

AHRQ in the Professional Literature

Association between hospital efficiency and quality of care among fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with prostate cancer: a retrospective cohort study. Chhatre S, Malkowicz SB, Vapiwala N, et al. Cancers. 2024 Dec 13;16(24):4154. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Potential implications of using locally validated risk factors for drug-resistant pathogens in patients with community-acquired pneumonia in US hospitals: a cross-sectional study. Gasoyan H, Deshpande A, Imrey PB, et al. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Nov 22;79(5):1277-82. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Oregon community benefit reform influenced not-for-profit hospitals’ charity care and medical debt write-off. Santos T, Lindrooth RC, Lee SD, et al. Health Aff. 2025 Feb;44(2):196-205. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Barriers to perioperative palliative care across Veterans Health Administration hospitals: a qualitative evaluation. Evans EE, Bradley SE, Vitous CA, et al. Am J Surg. 2025 Mar;241:116063. Epub 2024 Nov 8. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Incidence of and risk factors for subsequent lower respiratory tract infection following an infant RSV hospitalization. Lee R, Ding T, Riddell CA, et al. Children. 2025 Feb 2;12(2):183. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

An electronic health record metadata-mining approach to identifying patient-level interprofessional clinician teams in the intensive care unit. Yakusheva O, Khadr L, Lee KA, et al. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2025 Mar;32(3):426-34. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Nurse practitioner care environments and provider shortages among patients with multiple chronic conditions. McMenamin A, Turi E, Liu J, et al. Res Nurs Health. 2025 Apr;48(2):271-80. Epub 2025 Jan 30. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Co-created improvement goals and strategies for implementing SBIRT and MAUD in primary care settings in a facilitator-supported, tailored implementation study. Kenzie ES, Weekley T, Barnes C, et al. Transl Behav Med. 2025 Jan 16;15(1):ibae059. Access the abstract on PubMed®.

Contact Information
For comments or questions about AHRQ News Now, contact Karen Fleming-Michael, (301) 427-1798 or Karen.FlemingMichael@ahrq.hhs.gov