Introduction: Preventing the occurrence of hospital readmissions is needed to improve quality of care and foster population health across the care continuum. Hospitals are being held accountable for improving transitions of care to avert unnecessary readmissions. Advocate Health Care in Chicago and Cerner (ACC) collaborated to develop all-cause, 30-day hospital readmission risk prediction models to identify patients that need interventional resources. Ideally, prediction models should encompass several qualities: they should have high predictive ability; use reliable and clinically relevant data; use vigorous performance metrics to assess the models; be validated in populations where they are applied; and be scalable in heterogeneous populations. However, a systematic review of prediction models for hospital readmission risk determined that most performed poorly (average C-statistic of 0.66) and efforts to improve their performance are needed for widespread usage.Methods: The ACC team incorporated electronic health record data, utilized a mixed-method approach to evaluate risk factors, and externally validated their prediction models for generalizability. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied on the patient cohort and then split for derivation and internal validation. Stepwise logistic regression was performed to develop two predictive models: one for admission and one for discharge. The prediction models were assessed for discrimination ability, calibration, overall performance, and then externally validated.Results: The ACC Admission and Discharge Models demonstrated modest discrimination ability during derivation, internal and external validation post-recalibration (C-statistic of 0.76 and 0.78, respectively), and reasonable model fit during external validation for utility in heterogeneous populations.Conclusions: The ACC Admission and Discharge Models embody the design qualities of ideal prediction models. The ACC plans to continue its partnership to further improve and develop valuable clinical models.

No abstract

Background-Schools represent a key potential venue for addressing childhood obesity.Objective-To assess the feasibility of Power-Up, an after-school program to decrease obesity risk among African American children, using community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles.Methods-Teachers led 14 weekly nutrition and physical activity sessions during after-school care at the Woodlawn Community School on Chicago's South Side. Forty African American children ages 5 to 12 participated; their 28 parents discussed similar topics weekly at pickup time, and families practiced relevant skills at home. Pre-and post-intervention anthropometrics, blood pressure, dietary measures, and health knowledge and beliefs for children and parents were compared in univariate analysis.Results-At baseline, 26% of children were overweight; 28% were obese. Post-intervention, mean body mass index (BMI) z scores decreased from 1.05 to 0.81 (p < .0001). Changes were more pronounced for overweight (−0.206 z-score units) than for obese children (−0.062 z-score units; p = .01). Girls decreased their combined prevalence of overweight/obesity from 52% to 46%; prevalence across these categories did not change for boys. The prevalence of healthful attitudes rose, including plans to "eat more foods that are good for you" (77% to 90%; p = .027) and "planning to try some new sports" (80% to 88%; p = .007). Conclusion-Childrenin the Power-Up program reduced mean BMI z scores significantly. The after-school venue proved feasible. The use of CBPR principles helped to integrate Power-Up into school activities and contributed to likelihood of sustainability. Engaging parents effectively in the after-school time frame proved challenging; additional strate gies to engage parents are under development. Plans are underway to evaluate this intervention through a randomized study.

Background-Schools represent a key potential venue for addressing childhood obesity.Objective-To assess the feasibility of Power-Up, an after-school program to decrease obesity risk among African American children, using community-based participatory research (CBPR) principles.Methods-Teachers led 14 weekly nutrition and physical activity sessions during after-school care at the Woodlawn Community School on Chicago's South Side. Forty African American children ages 5 to 12 participated; their 28 parents discussed similar topics weekly at pickup time, and families practiced relevant skills at home. Pre-and post-intervention anthropometrics, blood pressure, dietary measures, and health knowledge and beliefs for children and parents were compared in univariate analysis.Results-At baseline, 26% of children were overweight; 28% were obese. Post-intervention, mean body mass index (BMI) z scores decreased from 1.05 to 0.81 (p < .0001). Changes were more pronounced for overweight (−0.206 z-score units) than for obese children (−0.062 z-score units; p = .01). Girls decreased their combined prevalence of overweight/obesity from 52% to 46%; prevalence across these categories did not change for boys. The prevalence of healthful attitudes rose, including plans to "eat more foods that are good for you" (77% to 90%; p = .027) and "planning to try some new sports" (80% to 88%; p = .007). Conclusion-Childrenin the Power-Up program reduced mean BMI z scores significantly. The after-school venue proved feasible. The use of CBPR principles helped to integrate Power-Up into school activities and contributed to likelihood of sustainability. Engaging parents effectively in the after-school time frame proved challenging; additional strate gies to engage parents are under development. Plans are underway to evaluate this intervention through a randomized study.