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Publications » Newsletters » The Commonwealth Fund Digest
The Commonwealth Fund Digest
March/April 2006
In this Issue
Main Features
In Other News
Innovations
Items in Brief
Just Published
Main Features
An "unequivocable business case" can be made for increasing the level of nurse staffing in hospitals--a move that could pay for itself in fewer patient deaths, shorter hospital stays, and decreased rates of medical complications, new Fund-supported research finds. Read more »
Between 1996 and 2002, the average American family's out-of-pocket health care spending rose nearly twice as fast as its income, reported Mark Merlis and colleagues in a Fund report that draws on data from a household survey conducted by the federal government. Read more »
In Other News
The time is ripe for foundation leadership, writes Fund president Karen Davis in her President's Message for the Fund's 2005 Annual Report. In the essay, Davis explains the Fund's decision to establish the Commission on a High Performance Health System. Read more »
A Fund-supported American Journal of Medicine revealed that Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in for-profit health plans received significantly lower-quality care than beneficiaries in not-for-profit plans in four important areas. Read more »
A new Fund analysis of national survey data finds that the baby boom generation is facing a host of problems related to health and health coverage. Read more »
In a new Health Affairs article, the Fund's Stuart Guterman discusses two congressionally mandated reports on specialty hospitals, the source of some recent controversy. Read more »
Innovations
A new National Quality Forum user's guide suggests ways to help patients--particularly those with low health literacy--understand their health care choices. Read more »
Items in Brief
- Listen and Learn
- Let Patients Designate Their Race
- More Child Development Data, Please
- Medicare at Middle Age
- New Harkness Fellows Chosen
Read more »
Just Published
Quote of Note
"The lack of explicit financing of the broader (and unprofitable) missions of health care facilities is a major failure."
—Stuart Guterman, in "Specialty Hospitals: A Problem or Symptom?" Health Affairs(Jan./Feb. 2006)
Related
Understanding Variation in Hospital Quality
Ashish Jha, M.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, talks about quality variations even within individual hospitals, and how patients can spark change.
Read more »