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Theme Issue

Improving Efficiency and Value in Health Care

Sponsored by The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Gaps in quality, safety, equity, and access characterize our health care system. At the same time, rising health care costs affect employers and payers as well as patients and hospitals and health systems. Policymakers, private payers, and system leaders are looking for ways to reduce waste, increase the efficiency of health care delivery, and allocate resources to improve value in health care. And patients—the consumers—want to maximize the value of their own health care dollar.

Changing the way we deliver health care will require process redesigns that improve quality and limit cost growth at the same time, thereby making health care more efficient.

Much of the current discussion on efficiency focuses on how to measure it. HSR's theme issue on Improving Efficiency and Value in Health Care seeks to move beyond measurement to improvement—that is, reducing unnecessary cost and waste while at the same time maintaining or improving quality.

Additional Information

 Carolyn Clancy & Irene Fraser - Evidence for Improving Efficiency
 Download Issue Brief

Table of Contents

Improving Efficiency and Value in Health Care: Introduction
Irene Fraser, William Encinosa, Sherry Glied

Examining Quality Improvement Programs: The Case of Minnesota Hospitals
John R. Olson, James A. Belohlav, Lori S. Cook, Julie M. Hays

Front-Line Staff Perspectives on Opportunities for Improving the Safety and Efficiency of Hospital Work Systems
Anita L. Tucker, Sara J. Singer, Jennifer E. Hayes, Alyson Falwell

Hospital Quality, Efficiency, and Input Slack Differentials
Vivian G. Valdmanis, Michael D. Rosko, Ryan L. Mutter

Steering Patients to Safer Hospitals? The Effect of a Tiered Hospital Network on Hospital Admissions
Dennis P. Scanlon, Richard C. Lindrooth, Jon B. Christianson

Specialty and Full-Service Hospitals: A Comparative Cost Analysis
Kathleen Carey, James F. Burgess Jr., Gary J. Young

Access Intervention in an Integrated, Prepaid Group Practice: Effects on Primary Care Physician Productivity
Douglas Conrad, Paul Fishman, David Grembowski, James Ralston, Robert Reid, Diane Martin, Eric Larson, Melissa Anderson

Impact of Physician Assistant Care on Office Visit Resource Use in the United States
Perri A. Morgan, Nilay D. Shah, Jay S. Kaufman, Mark A. Albanese