Several HCP faculty members are represented in this special celebratory issue (November/December 2007) of the prestigious journal Health Affairs.

HCP associate professors David C. Grabowski, PhD, and A. James O’Malley, PhD, and a colleague contributed “The Costs and Potential Savings Associated with Nursing Home Hospitalizations.” The researchers found that spending on hospitalizations from nursing homes increased 29 percent from 1999 to 2004, totaling some $972 million by 2004. The type of spending indicated that significant savings might be realized from programs designed to reduce potentially avoidable hospitalizations from nursing homes. Read the abstract of this article. Read the write-up about this article by the Commonwealth Fund.

Grabowski is also a coauthor of “Prospects for Transferring Nursing Home Residents to the Community,” in the same issue. Read this abstract.

HCP Associate Professor Bruce E. Landon, MD, MBA, MSc, is a coauthor of the article “Climbing Up the Pay-For-Performance Learning Curve: Where Are the Early Adopters Now?” The researchers studied the evolution of the pay-for-performance strategies of 27 early adopters of such payment-incentive programs, as well as the lessons the organizations learned. Read the abstract.

HCP Professor Richard G. Frank is coauthor of “Mental Health in the Mainstream of Health Care.” The authors discuss recent changes in mental health policy and avenues for future progress in the treatment of people with mental illness. Read the abstract.