News Briefs: Week of Sept. 21-25

By News Staff
9/23/2009

This roundup includes the following news briefs:

AHRQ Resource Center Offers Free Health IT Tools
Obama Administration Moves Ahead With Medical Liability Demonstration Grants
IOM Wants Ethnicity, Language Measures Included in EHRs
SAMHSA Issues Health Alert on Adulterated Cocaine

AHRQ Resource Center Offers Free Health IT Tools

The National Resource Center for Health Information Technology, an affiliate of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, or AHRQ, has released three new resources to help physicians and other health care stakeholders overcome health IT challenges. The following resources are available online at no charge.

Liability Coverage for Regional Health Information Organizations (38-page PDF; About PDFs) provides lessons from AHRQ-funded projects on how to navigate liability issues within a health information exchange environment.
The Health Information Technology Evaluation Toolkit (62-page PDF; About PDFs) helps physicians and health care organizations measure the effect of their health IT systems and projects.
The AHRQ-Funded Project Resource Archives features more than 50 resources created by AHRQ grants and contracts, including vendor selection materials, project management forms and a patient medication checklist.

Obama Administration Moves Ahead With Medical Liability Demonstration Grants

The Obama administration has announced it will set aside $25 million in funding for demonstration grants to help states fund pilot programs aimed at reducing medical malpractice lawsuits.

The demonstration grants, which will be administered by HHS, are intended to help states and health care systems test medical liability systems that will

put patient safety first and work to reduce preventable injuries,
foster better communication between doctors and their patients,
ensure that patients are compensated in a fair and timely manner for medical injuries and reduce the incidence of frivolous lawsuits, and
reduce liability premiums.

IOM Wants Ethnicity, Language Measures Included in EHRs

The Institute of Medicine has recommended that HHS develop standards for electronic health record, or EHR, systems to detail patient race, ethnicity and level of English-language proficiency.

According to an August 2009 report brief, "Race, Ethnicity and Language Data: Standardization for Health Care Quality Improvement," (4-page PDF; About PDFs) evidence shows that health care disparities persist for specific population groups. A fundamental step in identifying which populations are most at risk is the collection of relevant patient data. Report authors say that physicians, hospitals and health plans can use data collected in EHRs to understand the populations they serve, identify disparities in care and monitor quality improvement efforts.

SAMHSA Issues Health Alert on Adulterated Cocaine

HHS' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMHSA, said in a Sept. 21 news release that more than 70 percent of the illicit cocaine analyzed in July contained the veterinary antiparasitic drug levamisole. The agency said ingesting cocaine mixed with the drug reduces the number of white blood cells, leading to life-threatening infections and other side effects.

The agency said there have been about 20 confirmed or probable cases of agranulocytosis, including two deaths, associated with use of cocaine adulterated with levamisole. Symptoms include