Volume VIII 2012
The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Health Professions Department of Health Services Administration Phone: 205-934-5661 Fax: 205-975-6608
R ESEARCH U PDATE THE EVOLVING NATURE OF HEALTHCARE INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Achieving Excellence in Research and Teaching
2
Faculty Highlights
3
Honors Program Cultivates Young Researchers
4
Newly-funded and Ongoing Research
5
Recent Publications
6-7
New HSA Faculty
8
In 2010, we introduced the department’s vision to “shape the future of healthcare.” We addressed healthcare IT and quality of care and emphasized the central role that government healthcare reform will play in that future. Much has happened since 2010 on all fronts; we have been working to fully understand and influence the still uncertain future of the healthcare system. In the pages that follow, we demonstrate how the department and its faculty advance the research enterprise and translate research into practice. The department’s external grant support, publications, and editorships of major journals all point to the faculty’s leadership roles in the profession. Consistent with the National Symposium theme this year, we present the 2012 Research Updates: “The Evolving Nature of Healthcare.” A major thrust of our efforts started in February 2011 with the invitation of Jean Chenoweth, Senior Vice President, Center for Performance Improvement, Thomson Reuters, to deliver the 2011 L. R. Jordan Endowed Lecture, “The Impact of Leadership – The Driving Force for Quality.” At the time, Ms. Chenoweth and Thomson Reuters collected, analyzed and reported a vast array of data pertinent to the quality of healthcare services. Their “100 Top Hospitals” reports are widely referenced for information regarding hospital quality. Her presentation described quality assessment that looked at the level of a given quality metric at a point in time as well as the change or trajectory of that metric over a five-year period. She concluded that healthcare leadership was essential for sustained quality improvement in healthcare organizations. She
indicated that irrespective of the outcome of specific healthcare reform legislation, the delivery system must find a way to provide better quality to more people at a reasonable cost. Important to those concerned with education, Ms. Chenoweth argued that the comprehensive reform of healthcare will be from within the system and will fundamentally change the roles and responsibilities of healthcare leaders. Emphasizing that these leaders will be accountable for health outcomes, not just to patients in their facilities, but also for the health of the broader community and that accountability will arise from routine measurement and reporting of outcomes. Creating sustained improvement will force future leaders to concentrate on changing culture and not just processes, and by necessity these leaders will need to communicate to different audiences in different manners. Finally, future leaders must be flexible because the performance metrics will differ across components of the delivery system (small hospital, home care, teaching hospital, etc).
Jean Chenoweth, Senior Vice President, Thomas Reuters health IT curriculum to train the workforce necessary for our healthcare system to transition to the electronic health record. This curriculum is being used throughout the US and in over 70 countries on six continents. Other parts of Research Updates features a profile of Robert Weech-Maldonado, Ph.D., our L. R. Jordan Endowed Chair and his pioneering work on health disparities and cultural competence. His work will drive our future leaders to address the health improvement needs of communities. We also profile Dr. Amy Landry’s work on Medicaid Reform and Dr. Shannon Houser’s research on the electronic health record and her international work. Finally, on the back page we introduce two new faculty members, Dr. Jessica Williams and Bryan Breland, JD and their roles in the future of our department. Our faculty has had outstanding productivity with over 120 scholarly publications, and 30 funded projects. If you would like a complete list of publications or a list of funded projects, please contact the department.
In keeping with the growing concerns over healthcare quality measurement and with the continuing importance of healthcare IT, in 2011 the department created the new Center for Health Informatics for Patient Safety/Quality (CHIPS/Q) within the department. The goal of this Center is to provide educational consultation on health IT and its role in improving healthcare quality and patient safety. We plan to capitalize on our informatics research and health IT education expertise. Our department was one of five institutions Continued on Next Page: selected to develop a national
Volume VIII 2012
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ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE TEACHING
Rob Weech-Maldonado, Ph.D.
“…be able to get outside your comfort zone .” Rob WeechMaldonado
Over the last decade Robert Weech-Maldonado, the UAB L.R. Jordan Chair of Health Administration, has gained national prominence for his work on healthcare organizational cultural competency and how it relates to racial and ethnic differences in patient experiences and health disparities. His work over the past decade has generated evidence in support of a “business model” where healthcare organizations are able to realize financial and other benefits when they eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in the care they provide to patients. By addressing real healthcare delivery concerns from a health services research and policy perspective, Dr. Weech-Maldonado exemplifies how research can and should be conducted to achieve meaningful outcomes. In addition to his accomplishments in research, Dr. WeechMaldonado is a committed educator. Rob recently received the Academy of Management Health Care Management Division’s “Excellence in Teaching Award.” This prestigious award recognizes innovative and outstanding teaching in the classroom and provides an opportunity to encourage, recognize and reward the work of dedicated and inspiring teachers. The award is based on the success of the teacher in developing effective teaching methods, courses, and/or teaching materials that
IN
RESEARCH
generate student learning, critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, and/or research. The award is also recognition of Dr. Weech-Maldonado’s success in creating the type of active and engaging learning environment that inspires our students to achieve excellence. In recognition of his research expertise and his teaching effectiveness, Rob serves on many doctoral students’ dissertation committees and provides mentoring for postdocs and young faculty. Knowing of Rob’s talents and his commitment to both education and research, we asked him what advice he would have for doctoral students and new investigators who have hopes of establishing their own research careers. Here is what he had to say: Although there are certainly challenges to establishing a productive research career— especially in the area of funding— there are some things that come immediately to mind. First, it is important that new researchers be flexible. Even though you might have a defined research agenda that is important to you, it is important to be in tune with what the current needs of the field are, and now, more than ever, to be in tune especially with policy makers because they set the priorities and provide the funding for research. This is particularly true if you want to obtain funding for research but is also important if you want your research to be applied in practice. So it is critical that researchers stay on top of the current needs of the field and are able to adapt their research in a way to address these needs. It is not necessary to change directions and start doing something completely different but you can redeploy your tools to better fit the current needs of the field. Being flexible like this often helps you gain new areas of expertise.
AND
When developing your research career it is very valuable to have mentors—it definitely was for me--and there are several ways to go about finding a mentor. One is for researchers to be more proactive within their professional associations. We have great professional organizations like the Academy of Management and Academy Health that are really helpful with mentoring. However, it is important to try to make connections not just within your own organization but outside your organization as well. Sometimes this may mean identifying and then seeking out more senior established researchers that you would like to work with and having a plan for how you could work with them. For example, you could develop an idea for a paper that you could share or bring a consultant on board for a grant you are proposing. I think that to achieve your career goals as a researcher you can’t narrowly think just about your current colleagues, you also need to think broadly about the field and other connections you might be able to establish with people from other disciplines— the challenge here, at least at first is to be able to get outside your comfort zone. These ideas are reflections of things that have worked for me—I am sure there are other ideas….
Continued From Front Page: This fall we hosted our 32nd National Symposium for Healthcare Executives with the theme “The Evolving Nature of Healthcare.” In addition to speakers representing a broad range of industry leaders, this year will highlight applied research conducted by Dr. Richard Shewchuk and Dr. Greg Carlson from our department on how to assess institutional readiness for employing physicians.
Research Update
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FACULTY HIGHLIGHTS
Amy Landry, Ph.D. Amy Yarbrough Landry, Ph.D., assistant professor, has been a leader in a variety of professional associations while still maintaining an active research agenda. Dr. Landry began her career in the Department of Health Services Research, Management, and Policy at the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions. While at UF, Dr. Landry’s work centered largely on the organizations charged with carrying out the Medicaid Reform Evaluation Project which was funded by Florida’s Agency for Healthcare Administration as a part of their Medicaid Reform Waiver. She and her colleagues produced research findings discussing the difficulty of implementing such a large scale reform, differences in patient experiences with emerging managed care models in the Medicaid population, and the effectiveness of programs designed to incentivize health behaviors in the Medicaid population. Dr. Landry continues her collaboration with this research team, and continues to work to better understand Medicaid and the way it functions to provide healthcare to its beneficiaries. The strategic behavior of healthcare organizations, and particularly how this behavior influences organizational performance, has also been of keen interest to Dr. Landry. She has completed research on the financial performance of hospitals
and nursing homes. Together with UAB colleagues, and with funding from the Lister Hill Center for Health Policy, she is currently validating a model of financial distress in the nursing home industry. Dr. Landry also has received funding from the American College of Healthcare Executives to study training and development issues among hospital executives, and she has studied competency development, leadership training in hospitals, and succession planning. Her passion for teaching and working with MSHA students makes understanding the factors that make leaders exceptional even more important. Dr. Landry has not only been actively developing a research portfolio, but she has been active in a variety of professional associations including. Dr. Landry serves on the board of the Alabama ACHE chapter and is member of the executive committee of the Healthcare Management Division of the Academy of Management as Academic-at-Large. She is also the outgoing Chair of the Management Faculty Network for the Association of University Programs in Health Administration.
Shannon Houser, Ph.D. Shannon Houser, Ph.D., MPH, RHIA, Associate Professor and Associate Scientist in UAB Center for AIDS Research, is actively involved in a number of large scale national and international healthcare projects.At the re-
quest of the White House Office of National AIDS Policy, Dr. Houser was appointed to The Institute of Medicine (IOM) Committee to Review Data Systems for Monitoring HIV/AIDS Care. The committee was charged to assess data systems that capture information about HIV and to investigate the best ways to use that information to improve HIV/AIDS care. The IOM Committee released its first report in March, 2012 with the second IOM Committee report expected to be released in September, 2012. In 2010, she was appointed as advisor to Project HOPE, the U.S. based organization which offers health education and medical training in 35 countries. She oversaw, evaluated and provided technical support to 15 on-going HOPE sponsored projects in China. Dr. Houser’s other research interests focus on health technology and information management. As a Principal Investigator, she recently conducted a usability study that evaluated an in-house designed electronic health records (EHR) system in the UAB HIV/AIDS Clinic. This work was funded by a national research award from the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). She has also served on an EHR usability task force for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS). In her other studies, Dr. Houser has examined a variety of EHR implementation issues, its impact on cancer registry systems, and implications for EHR implementation related to Meaningful Use. She also examined the impact of collecting medical records under HIPAA related to a longitudinal epidemiological study. In her AHIMA FORE funded study, Dr. Houser examined the impact of the HIPAA Privacy Rule upon the release of health information in hospital HIM departments across the country.
“ …of interest is the strategic behavior of healthcare organizations and how the behavior influences organizational performance...“ Amy Landry
“…health information management is key to healthcare delivery and research.” Shannon Houser
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Volume VIII 2012
H O N O R S P R O G R A M C U L T I VA T E S Y O U N G RESEARCHERS zation. In 2011 Health Care Management students Jaime Brabb, won 3rd place and Corey Lovelace won honorable mention in the UAB Expo. In addition, many of the students present their research findings at conferences such as the University of Alabama System (UA) Honors Research Day, the Alabama Rural Health Association, and the Birmingham VA Research Day.
Darius Morgan, SHP Honor Student Most people typically would not think of the words undergraduate and research in the same sentence. Yet undergraduate students and faculty have been participating in the School of Health Professions Honors Program since it began in 2006. Students who participate in the program take seminars in leadership and research and work closely with a faculty member to complete their research project. The honors students oftentimes present a poster of their research findings at the UAB Undergraduate Student Expo, an annual event to showcase the research of undergraduates and their mentors. Many of the Health Care Management and Health Information Management students who have participated in the SHP Honors Program have won awards for their research. Three of the SHP Honors students have gone on to enter the MSHA Program: Ron Hamner (Class 43), and Corey Lovelace and Erin Cheng (Class 48). Four HSA faculty members have primarily been responsible for mentoring these students. Dr. Paige Powell has been involved with the Honors Program since its inception in the Fall of 2005. She began mentoring students in 2006 and became the Program Director in 2010. She has mentored seven students through their research projects. Some of the students’ research topics include Alabama Physicians’ Perceptions about ACOs, VA Mental Health Screening Practices, Physical Activity and its Relationship to Sports-Related Injuries, Comparisons of Four Countries’ Health Systems, and Diet Confidence and Health Care Utili
Dr. Shannon Houser has also mentored Health Information Management (HIM) students in the Honors Program. Her students have also presented at national meetings and their research has resulted in peer reviewed publications. These students have worked on projects related to the EHR implementation, the impact of EHRs on health registries, and the readiness of hospitals to adopt ICD-10. Dr. Houser’s students have won awards at the University of Alabama (UA) System Honors Research Day and presented at the Alabama Association of Health Information Management as well as at national meetings. At the annual UA System Honors Research Day, Lucretia Johnson, HIM student, won first place (2007) and Darius Morgan won second place (2012). Lucretia’s research findings were published in the Perspectives in Health Information Management Journal. Other faculty have also engaged in mentoring students. Dr. Mickey Trimm mentored a health care management student on a project examining the costs per adjusted bed for Cooper Green Mercy Hospital compared to other hospitals in the Birmingham area. Mr. Bob Garrie worked with a health information management student to develop, implement and analyze a survey on Factors Influencing Acceptance of Electronic Health Records in Alabama. The SHP Honors Program exemplifies the mentoring of young researchers and we are proud of the accomplishments of all of our Honors Students and appreciate the time the faculty spends to help these students succeed.
“ … students develop strong leadership and research skills, so that they are well prepared to excel and represent the high-quality education provided by the HCM and HIM programs in the HSA Department.” Paige Powell
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RECENT FACULTY PUBLICATIONS Dr. Stephen J. O’Conner, Professor and Editor of the Journal of Health Care Management, has conducted monthly interviews with nationally known and influential healthcare leaders which has resulted in over 30 publications in the past two years. These Health Care Management publications are written on the most current issues impacting healthcare today and include topics such as Affordable Care Act and future health reform, cultural diversity, healthcare supply chain management and lessons the civilian healthcare sector can learn from the military. Because of his outstanding contributions to healthcare management excellence, Dr. O’Connor received the American College of Healthcare Executives Distinguished Service Award. His work is not only influential but also critical to bringing to the forefront important issues affecting healthcare today.
Alexander JA, Christianson JB, Hearld LR, Hurley R, Scanlon DP. Challenges of capacity building in multisector community health alliances. Health Educ Behav. 2010;37(5):645-664. Alexander JA, Hearld LR. The science of quality improvement implementation: Developing capacity to make a difference. Med Care. 2011;49:6-20. Alexander JA, Hearld LR, Hasnain-Wynia R, Christianson JB, Martsolf GR. Consumer trust in sources of physician quality information. Med Care Res Rev. 2011;68(4):421-440. Alexander JA, Hearld LR, Mittler JN. Measuring leadership in multi-sector health alliances. Nonprofit Ma nag Lead. 2011;21(4):341-362. Alexander JA, Hearld LR, Mittler JN, Harvey J. Patient-physician role relationships and patient activation among individuals with chronic illness. Health Serv Res. 2012;47(3 Pt 1):1201-1223.
Alexander JA, Hearld LR. Methods and metrics challenges of delivery-system research. Implement Sci. 2012;7(15):15. Austin S, Qu H, Shewchuk R. Association between adherence to physical activity guidelines and health-related quality of life among individuals with physiciandiagnosed arthritis. Qual Life Res. 2012;21(8):1347-1357. Berner ES. Mind wandering and medical errors. Med Educ. 2011;45(11):10681069. Byrd JD, Landry A. Distinguishing community benefits: tax exemption versus organizational legitimacy. J Healthc Manag. 2012;57(1):66-76; Discussion 77-68. Crenshaw K, Shewchuk RM, Qu H, Staton LJ, Bigby JA, Houston TK, Allison J, Estrada CA. What should we include in a cultural competence curriculum? An emerging formative evaluation process to foster curriculum development. Acad Med. 2011;86(3):333-341. Davis LL, Kertesz SG, Mahaney-Price AF, Martin MY, Tabb KD, Pettey KM, McNeal SF, Granstaff S, Hamner K, Powell MP, Hilgeman MM, Snow AL, Stanton M, Parmelee P, Litaker MS, Hawn MT. Alabama Veterans Rural Health Initiative: A preliminary evaluation of unmet health care needs. J Rural Soc Sc. 2011;26(3):14-31. Elliott MN, Haviland AM, Dembosky JW, Hambarsoomian K, Weech-Maldonado R. Are there differences in the Medicare experiences of beneficiaries in Puerto Rico compared with those in the U.S. mainland? Med Care. 2012;50(3):243-248. Faught E, Richman J, Martin R, Funkhouser E, Foushee R, Kratt P, Kim Y, Clements K, Cohen N, Adoboe D, Knowlton R, Pisu M. Incidence and prevalence of epilepsy among older U.S. Medicare beneficiaries. Neurology. 2012;78(7):448-453.
Goode PS, Burgio KL, Johnson TM, Clay OJ, Roth DL, Markland AD, Burkhardt JH, Issa MM, Lloyd LK. Behavioral therapy with or without biofeedback and pelvic floor electrical stimulation for persistent postprostatectomy incontinence: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2011;305(2):151-159. Goodman KW, Berner ES, Dente MA, Kaplan B, Koppel R, Rucker D, Sands DZ, Winkelstein P. Challenges in ethics, safety, best practices, and oversight regarding HIT vendors, their customers, and patients: a report of an AMIA special task force. J Am Med Inform Assoc. 2011;18(1):77-81. Hearld LR, Alexander JA, Mittler JN. Fostering change within organizational participants of multisectoral health care alliances. Health Care Manage Rev. 2012;37(3):267-279. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Editorial. J Health Adm Educ. 2010;27(1):1-4. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Healthcare management leadership – The importance of staying current. J Health Adm Educ. 2010;27(2):81-85. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Quality and performance is much more than meets the eye. J Health Adm Educ. 2010;27(3):145-150. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Leveraging our strengths - Innovative and insightful faculty efforts. J Health Adm Educ. 2010;27(4):249-252. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Healthcare management education programs – How are we really doing? J Health Adm Educ. 2011;28(1):7-9.
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R E C E N T F A C U L T Y P U B L I C A T I O N S ( c o n t i nu e d ) Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Collaboration and teamwork: Working together for a better future. J Health Adm Educ. 2011;28(2):71-73. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Academic and professional challenges our programs face. J Health Adm Educ. 2011;28(3):183186. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Working toward effective change in healthcare. J Health Adm Educ. 2011;28(4):253-256. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. Selected approaches for improving our educational programs. J Health Adm Educ. 2012;29(1):1-3. Hernandez SR, Shewchuk RM. How can we chart a true course in winds of change? J Health Adm Educ. 2012;29(2):95-98. Houser SH. Exploring a training model and program evaluation approaches in a rehabilitation program. Chin J Rehab Med. 2011;26(3):257-260. Houser SH, Au D, Weech-Maldonado R. The impact of geography on hospital electronic health records implementation in Alabama. Appl Clin Inform. 2011;2(3):270-283. Houser SH, Colquitt S, Clements K, HartHester S. The impact of electronic health record usage on cancer registry systems in Alabama. Perspect Health Inf Manag. 2012;9(1):1-15. Houston TK, Sadasivam RS, Ford DE, Richman J, Ray MN, Allison JJ. The QUIT-PRIMO provider-patient Internet-delivered smoking cessation referral intervention: a cluster-randomized comparative effectiveness trial: study protocol. Implement Sci. 2010;5:87.
Houston TK, Coley HL, Sadasivam RS, Ray MN, Williams JH, Allison JJ, Gilbert GH, Kiefe CI, Kohler C. Impact of contentspecific email reminders on provider participation in an online intervention: a dental PBRN study. Stud Health Technol Inform. 2010;160(Pt 2):801-805. Houston TK, Cherrington A, Coley HL, Robinson KM, Trobaugh JA, Williams JH, Foster PH, Ford DE, Gerber BS, Shewchuk RM, Allison JJ. The art and science of patient storytelling-harnessing narrative communication for behavioral interventions: The ACCE project. J Health Commun. 2011;16(7):686-697. Huff-Shack J, Coley HL, Houston TK, Williams JH, Hubbell A, Sadasivam RS, Funkhouser E, Gilbert GH, Ray MN. Dental practice implementation of a point of care electronic referral system for patients who smoke: A dental PBRN study. Journal of dental hygiene : JDH / American Dental Hygienists' Association. 2012;86(1):34. Hughes SO, Power TG, Papaioannou MA, Cross MB, Nicklas TA, Hall SK, Shewchuk RM. Emotional climate, feeding practices, and feeding styles: an observational analysis of the dinner meal in Head Start families. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2011;8:60. Hughes S, Shewchuk R. Child temperament, parent emotions, and perceptions of the child's feeding experience. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2012;9(1):64. Hyer K, Thomas KS, Branch LG, Harman JS, Johnson CE, Weech-Maldonado R. The influence of nurse staffing levels on quality of care in nursing homes. Gerontologist. 2011;51(5):610-616. Kazley AS, Diana ML, Menachemi N. The agreement and internal consistency of national hospital EMR measures. Health Care Manag Sci. 2011;14(4):307-313.
Landry AY, Landry RM. Medical bankruptcy reform: A fallacy of composition. Am Bankrupt Law J. 2011;19:151-183. Landry AY, Lemak CH, Hall A. Successful implementation in the public sector: Lessons learned from Florida's Medicaid reform program. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2011;17(2):154-163. Landry, AY, Stowe M, Haefner J. Competency assessment and development among health-care leaders: Results of a cross-sectional survey. Health Serv Manage Res. 2012;25(2):78-86. Locatis C, Berner ES, Hammack G, Smith S, Maisiak R, Ackerman M. Communication and proximity affects attributable to sense of presence in distance bioinformatics education. BMC Med Educ. 2011;11(1):10. Menachemi N, Powers TL, Brooks RG. Physician and practice characteristics associated with longitudinal increases in electronic health records adoption. J Healthc Manag. 2011;56(3):183-197; discussion 197-188. Menachemi N, Prickett CT, Brooks RG. The use of physician-patient email: a follow-up examination of adoption and bestpractice adherence 2005-2008. J Med Internet Res. 2011;13(1):e23. Menachemi N, Yeager VA, Bilello L, Harle CA, Sullivan CB, Siler-Marsiglio KI. Florida doctors seeing Medicaid patients show broad interest in federal incentives for adopting electronic health records. Health Aff (Millwood). 2011;30(8):1461-1470. Menachemi N, Shin DY, Ford EW, Yu F. Environmental factors and health information technology management strategy. Health Care Manage Rev. 2011;36(3):275-285.
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R E C E N T F A C U L T Y P U B L I C A T I O N S ( c o n t i nu e d ) Menachemi N, Collum TH. Benefits and drawbacks of electronic health record systems. Risk management and healthcare policy. 2011;4:47-55.
Qu H, Platonova EA, Kennedy KN, Shewchuk RM. Primary care patient satisfaction segmentation. Int J Qual Health Care. 2011;24(7):564-576.
Menachemi N, Blackburn J, Sen B, Morrisey MA, Becker DJ, Caldwell C, Kilgore ML. The impact of CHIP coverage on children with asthma in Alabama. Clinical pediatrics. 2012;51(3):247-253.
Qu H, Shewchuk RM, Chen Y, Deutsch A. Impact of Medicare prospective payment system on acute rehabilitation outcomes of patients with spinal cord injury. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2011;92(3):346-351.
Menachemi N, Mazurenko O, Kazley AS, Diana ML, Ford EW. Market factors and electronic medical record adoption in medical practices. Health Care Manage Rev. 2012;37(1):14-22. Menachemi N, Yeager VA, Duncan WJ, Katholi CR, Ginter PM. A taxonomy of state public health preparedness units: an empirical examination of organizational structure. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2012;18(3):250-258. Nicklas TA, Qu H, Hughes SO, He M, Wagner SE, Foushee HR, Shewchuk RM. Selfperceived lactose intolerance results in lower intakes of calcium and dairy foods and is associated with hypertension and diabetes in adults. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011;94(1):191-198. Panjamapirom A, Burkhardt JH, Volk LA, Rothschild JM, Bates DW, Glandon GL, Berner ES. Physician opinions of the importance, accessibility, and quality of health information and their use of the information. AMIA Annu Symp Proc. 2010;2010:46-50. Pisu M, Richman JS, Martin RC, Kim Y, Kratt P, Clements K, Funkhouser E, Knowlton R, Faught E. Diagnostic tests and neurology care for Medicare beneficiaries with seizures: Differences across racial groups. Medical Care. 2012;50(8):730-736. Qu H, Houston TK, Williams JH, Gilbert GH, Shewchuk RM. Cognitive mapping tobacco control advice for dentistry: a dental PBRN study. Am J Health Behav. 2011;35(2):228-239.
Sadasivam RS, Delaughter K, Crenshaw K, Sobko HJ, Williams JH, Coley HL, Ray MN, Ford DE, Allison JJ, Houston TK. Development of an interactive, Webdelivered system to increase providerpatient engagement in smoking cessation. J Med Internet Res. 2011;13(4):e87. Vlasova N, Schumacher JE, Oryschhuk O, Dumchev KV, Slobodyanyuk P, Moroz VM, Kim Y, Houser SH. STEPS outpatient program improves alcohol treatment outcomes in Ukrainian regional narcologic dispensary. Addict. Disord. Their Treat. 2011;10(1):6-13 Velez-Gonzalez H, Pradhan R, WeechMaldonado R. The role of non-financial performance measures in predicting hospital financial performance: the case of for-profit system hospitals. J Health Care Finance. 2011;38(2):12-23. Weech-Maldonado R, Al-Amin M, Nishimi RY, Salam F. Enhancing the cultural competency of health-care organizations. Adv Health Care Manag. 2011;10:43-67. Weech-Maldonado R, Dreachslin JL, Brown J, Pradhan R, Rubin KL, Schiller C, Hays RD. Cultural competency assessment tool for hospitals: evaluating hospitals' adherence to the culturally and linguistically appropriate services standards. Health Care Manage Rev. 2012;37(1):5466. Weech-Maldonado R, Elliott MN, Pradhan R, Schiller C, Dreachslin J, Hays RD. Moving towards culturally competent health
systems: Organizational and market factors. Soc Sci Med. 2012;75(5):815-822. Weech-Maldonado R, Laberge A, Pradhan R, Johnson CE, Yang Z, Hyer K. Nursing home financial performance: The role of ownership and chain affiliation. Health Care Manage Rev. 2012;37(3):235-245.
Books and Book Chapters Clements K, Houser SH. Data Reporting, Interpretation and Use. In: Abdelhak M, Grostick S, Hanken MA, editors. Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource. 4th ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co./Elsevier Health Sciences; 2011. p. 478-515. Paustian PE Botkin, C., Bolus, N. Health Informatics and Introduction to Research Methods. In Bolus NE, Brady AB, editors. Steves’ Review of Nuclear Medicine Technology. 4th ed. SNMTS Publishing; 2011.p.73-77. Pradhan R, Weech-Maldonado R. Exploring the Relationship Between Private Equity Ownership and Nursing Home Performance: A Review. In: Blair JD, Fottler MD, editors. Biennial Review of Health Care Management (Advances in Health Care Management). Emerald Group Publishing Limited; 2011. p. 63-89. Ray MN. Overview of Health Care Systems. In: Abdelhak M, Grostick S, Hanken MA, editors. Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource. 4th ed. Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co. /Elsevier Health Sciences; 2011. p.1-41. Spath, P, Slovensky, DJ. Performance management and patient safety, In Abdelhak M, Grostick S, Hanken M. editors Health Information: Management of a Strategic Resource. 4th ed. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Co./Elsevier Health Sciences; 2011. p. 438-477.
Research Update
The University of Alabama at Birmingham
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NEW HSA FACULTY
School of Health Professions Department of Health Services Administration Phone: 205-934-5661 Fax: 205-975-6608
www.uab.edu/hsa Editor: Midge N. Ray Co-Editor: Marcie H. Battles Department of Health Services Administration 1675 University Boulevard
Bryan Breland, JD, MPH, MPA Bryan Breland, JD, MPH, MPA is in the process of completing his DrPH at the UAB School of Public Health. The focus of his research is community and organizational emergency preparedness and disaster recovery. His dissertation work will consider whether the organizational structure and assignment of the operational unit responsible for institutional preparedness efforts is associated with quality and improved event or exercise outcomes in academic and research medical centers. Bryan served as the UAB Director of Emergency Management from 2009 until his appointment to the faculty in April 2012. Before coming to UAB, Bryan served 17 years in the fire service and later in his career he practiced law for 5 years both in private practice and representing a number of state and public agencies. The HSA Department is fortunate to once again have a lawyer on the faculty with healthcare expertise. Bryan is currently teaching Law for Health Care Professionals, Economics for Healthcare Managers, and Health Care Policy and Reform.
Dr. Jessica Williams: Dr. Williams received a Ph.D. in Health Education/Health Promotion and an M.P.H. in Epidemiology, both from the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Public Health. Although she recently completed her PhD, Dr. Williams has seven years’ experience in health services research at UAB, with interventions focused on increasing access to pharmacy services among vulnerable populations, providing guideline-based diabetes care to rural patients, enhancing doctor-patient communication among older adults, using a narrativebased DVD to encourage smoking cessation among low-income African American patients, and using web-based smoking cessation interventions to improve patient outcomes among dentists and physicians across the United States. She has publications in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, Patient Education and Counseling, International Journal of Quality Health Care, Health Education Journal, Journal of Health Communication, American Journal of Health Behavior, and the Journal of the National Medical Association. She currently teaches courses in Managerial Epidemiology, the Biopsychosocial Factors of Aging, and Research Methods. Her dissertation work included a grounded theory approach to explain the process of initiating and quitting smoking among low-income AfricanAmerican patients. Dr. Williams plans to pursue her research in health disparities among low-income African American tobacco users and health disparities among older adults.
HSA Research Committee: Midge N. Ray, RN, MSN, Chair Eta S. Berner, Ed.D. Jeffrey H. Burkhardt, Ph.D. Gerald L. Glandon, Ph.D. M. Paige Powell, Ph.D. Richard M. Shewchuk, Ph.D.
Jessica Williams, Ph.D.
UAB is an equal opportunity/affirmative action institution.