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Health Services and Health Outcomes Research

Westat has been in the forefront of data collection regarding issues of cost and use of health care, access to care, and users' satisfaction with medical plans and services, as well as patient safety issues. We use an array of methodologies, interviewing hundreds of thousands of participants each year.

  • Westat conducts AHRQ's Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a major longitudinal survey with an overlapping panel design. Each year, AHRQ provides a new sample of households from the sample completing the prior year's National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). CAPI interviews are conducted with participating households five times over a 2 1/2-year period. An annual followup survey of medical providers and pharmacies supplements the household data. The study provides annual national estimates of the use of health care services, charges, and payments for the services and health insurance coverage. Panels interviewed in 2001 and later years provide data on the quality of care for targeted health conditions. The size of the panels has ranged from 5,500 to 10,000 households. The overlapping panel design provides an annual pool of 10,000 to 15,000 households for national estimates.
  • The Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey (MCBS) is a continuous, multipurpose survey of a nationally representative sample of aged, disabled, and institutionalized Medicare beneficiaries. MCBS, which is sponsored by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is the only comprehensive source of information on the health status, health care use and expenditures, health insurance coverage, and socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of the entire spectrum of Medicare beneficiaries. It is designed to provide timely data on the effects of current laws and proposed changes in program features, such as prescribed medicines or long-term care coverage for the aged and disabled.

    The sample of 16,000 Medicare beneficiaries (including 1,000 living in health care facilities) is drawn from the Medicare enrollment file and is refreshed annually. Using a rotating panel design, MCBS has collected data continuously since 1991. Our staff have conducted more than 750,000 interviews since the inception of the survey.

  • The California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) is an RDD survey of some 42,000 or more households in the state, conducted for the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and its partners the California Department of Health Services and the Public Health Institute. Westat has worked with UCLA on the sample design and conducted telephone interviews in five languages for the 2001, 2003, and 2005 surveys, and will conduct the 2007 survey. The 2007 survey is expected to include a supplemental area probability sample to assess bias from nonresponse and undercoverage, and a supplemental sample of telephone numbers associated with cellular telephones. With funding from Federal and state government agencies as well as private foundations, CHIS provides county-level estimates for most California counties as well as state-level estimates for a variety of population subgroups. Interviews are conducted with randomly selected adults, adolescents, and parents of young children. Topics covered include the following:

    • Westat has also conducted several separately funded followup surveys of CHIS respondents, including surveys of members of sexual minorities, of American Indian women, and of cancer patients and others about the use of complementary and alternative treatments.


    Picture of a patient having blood pressure checked
  • The Medicare CAHPS® for CMS is an annual survey of beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare fee-for-service, Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, and Medicare prescription drug plans (PDPs). Westat conducted the MA-CAHPS surveys from 1997 through 2005, with a sample of about 200,000 beneficiaries from more than 200 health plans. The survey provides information on beneficiary experiences with health care services, which is reported to the public to help beneficiaries choose among health plan options and to the plans themselves for quality improvement. Beginning with the 2006 survey, Westat is responsible for sample selection, reporting to plans and other constituencies, and methodological assistance with the surveys.
  • For the U.S. Department of Defense, Westat has conducted several evaluations of the satisfaction of health care service beneficiaries. These studies have included the following:
  • Westat is developing and pilot testing two survey instruments concerning patient safety measures for AHRQ. One instrument queries risk managers, medical directors, and departmental managers in hospitals about the nature of event reporting systems in their organizations. The study is testing two versions: a self-administered paper survey and a telephone survey. The second instrument, for the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety, is a public-use instrument for hospitals interested in assessing the organizational culture surrounding the provision of safe care to patients. Westat also developed a toolkit, which includes a survey administration guide and data feedback template, for hospital use.
  • Westat acts as the Patient Safety Coordinating Center for AHRQ's Patient Safety Research Program, consisting of more than 100 grants and contracts. As the coordinating center, we perform a variety of functions, such as:

 

For more information about the Health and Medical Studies Research Area, please send us a message.

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