Journal of general internal medicine
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With the impending surge in the number of older adults, primary care clinicians will increasingly need to manage the care of vulnerable elders. Caring for vulnerable elders is complex because of their wide range of health goals and the interdependence of medical care and community supports needed to achieve those goals. ⋯ We then describe two delivery models of primary care for vulnerable elders--co-management, and augmented primary care. Finally, we discuss how the physical plant, people, workflow management, and community linkages in a primary care practice can be restructured to better serve these patients.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Engaging homeless persons in end of life preparations.
There are no prospective studies that have investigated the effects of an intervention to improve end of life (EOL) care in an underserved population. ⋯ This study demonstrates that people living in dire economic and social situations will complete an AD when offered the opportunity. While offering guidance resulted in higher rates of completion; even a simple self-guided AD process can achieve completion of ADs in this population.
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In 2005 we published draft guidelines for reporting studies of quality improvement interventions as the initial step in a consensus process for development of a more definitive version. The current article contains the revised version, which we refer to as SQUIRE (Standards for QUality Improvement Reporting Excellence). We describe the consensus process, which included informal feedback, formal written commentaries, input from publication guideline developers, review of the literature on the epistemology of improvement and on methods for evaluating complex social programs, and a meeting of stakeholders for critical review of the guidelines' content and wording, followed by commentary on sequential versions from an expert consultant group. Finally, we examine major differences between SQUIRE and the initial draft, and consider limitations of and unresolved questions about SQUIRE; we also describe ancillary supporting documents and alternative versions under development, and plans for dissemination, testing, and further development of SQUIRE.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
A randomized controlled trial of team-based care: impact of physician-pharmacist collaboration on uncontrolled hypertension.
Evaluate the effectiveness of collaborative management of hypertension by primary care-pharmacist teams in community-based clinics. ⋯ Patients randomized to collaborative primary care-pharmacist hypertension management achieved significantly better blood pressure control compared to usual care with no difference in quality of life or satisfaction.
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Comparative Study
Personal characteristics associated with resident physicians' self perceptions of preparedness to deliver cross-cultural care.
Recent reports from the Institute of Medicine emphasize patient-centered care and cross-cultural training as a means of improving the quality of medical care and eliminating racial and ethnic disparities. ⋯ Cross-cultural care skills training is associated with increased self-perceived preparedness to care for diverse patient populations providing support for the importance of such training in graduate medical education. In addition, selected resident characteristics are associated with being more or less prepared for different aspects of cross-cultural care. This underscores the need to both include medical residents from diverse backgrounds in all training programs and tailor such programs to individual resident needs in order to maximize the chances that such training is likely to have an impact on the quality of care.