The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has announced a $1.5 million funding opportunity for patient care and safety research in ambulatory and long-term care settings.
"The vast majority of healthcare is delivered in ambulatory settings with outpatient visits being more numerous than inpatient stays," according to the announcement. Outpatient visits in the U.S. outnumber hospital discharges by a factor of more than 30 to 1 and, on average, Americans visit ambulatory settings four times as often as they have inpatient stays.
Challenges in ensuring patient safety in the ambulatory setting may be attributed to the complex decentralized organization of ambulatory healthcare, and the need this places on patients to track, obtain and maintain information about the various aspects of their own care, according the AHRQ announcement.
Among the specific research areas of interests the AHRQ lists for this funding are:
• Evidence-based studies of intervention strategies that can improve patient safety at different levels of the healthcare system
• Studies to better understand the extent of disparities in patient safety in ambulatory settings
• Studies examining transitions between long-term care facilities and inpatient and outpatient settings
The earliest submission date for funding applicants is Jan. 5, 2016. The full announcement and list of research areas of interest can be found here.