Bmc Health Serv Res
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Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2010
Explosive growth of facet joint interventions in the Medicare population in the United States: a comparative evaluation of 1997, 2002, and 2006 data.
The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG-DHHS) issued a report which showed explosive growth and also raised questions of lack of medical necessity and/or indications for facet joint injection services in 2006.The purpose of the study was to determine trends of frequency and cost of facet joint interventions in managing spinal pain. ⋯ The reported explosive growth of facet joint interventions in managing spinal pain in certain regions and by certain specialties may result in increased regulations and scrutiny with reduced access.
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Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2010
Children admitted to hospital following unintentional injury: perspectives of health service providers in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of death and hospitalisation among New Zealand children, with indigenous Māori and ethnic minority Pacific children significantly over represented in these statistics. International research has shown that many children hospitalised for injury, as well as their families experience high levels of stress, and ethnic disparities in the quality of trauma care are not uncommon. The research on which this paper is based sought to identify key issues and concerns for New Zealand's multi-ethnic community following hospitalisation for childhood injury in order to inform efforts to improve the quality of trauma services. This paper reports on service providers' perspectives complementing previously published research on the experiences of families of injured children. ⋯ The identified issues and barriers indicate the need for interventions for service improvement at systemic, provider and patient levels. Of particular relevance are strategies that enable families to have better access to information, including culturally appropriate oral and written sources; improve communication amongst staff and between staff and families; and carefully developed discharge plans that provide care continuity across boundaries between hospital and community settings. Māori and Pacific family support services are important and need better resourcing and support from an organisational culture responsive to the needs of these populations.
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Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2010
Laryngeal Mask Airway for neonatal resuscitation in a developing country: evaluation of an educational intervention. Neonatal LMA: an educational intervention in DRC.
Studies carried out in developing countries have indicated that training courses in newborn resuscitation are efficacious in teaching local birth attendants how to properly utilize simple resuscitation devices. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and expertise gained by physicians and midwifes who participated in a Neonatal Resuscitation Course and workshop organized in a Third World Country on the use of Laryngeal Mask Airway (LMA). ⋯ Further studies are warranted to test the advantages and limits of the neonatal LMA training courses in developing countries.
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Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2010
Not all coping strategies are created equal: a mixed methods study exploring physicians' self reported coping strategies.
Physicians experience workplace stress and draw on different coping strategies. The primary goal of this paper is to use interview data to explore physicians' self reported coping strategies. In addition, questionnaire data is utilized to explore the degree to which the coping strategies are used and are associated with feelings of emotional exhaustion, a key symptom of burnout. ⋯ Physicians' self reported coping strategies are not all created equal in terms of frequency of use and correlation with feeling emotionally exhausted from one's work. This knowledge may be integrated into practical physician stress reduction interventions.
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Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2010
Multicenter Study Comparative StudyPatients' functioning as predictor of nursing workload in acute hospital units providing rehabilitation care: a multi-centre cohort study.
Management decisions regarding quality and quantity of nurse staffing have important consequences for hospital budgets. Furthermore, these management decisions must address the nursing care requirements of the particular patients within an organizational unit. In order to determine optimal nurse staffing needs, the extent of nursing workload must first be known. Nursing workload is largely a function of the composite of the patients' individual health status, particularly with respect to functioning status, individual need for nursing care, and severity of symptoms. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the derived subsets, the so-called ICF Core Sets, are a standardized approach to describe patients' functioning status. The objectives of this study were to (1) examine the association between patients' functioning, as encoded by categories of the Acute ICF Core Sets, and nursing workload in patients in the acute care situation, (2) compare the variance in nursing workload explained by the ICF Core Set categories and with the Barthel Index, and (3) validate the Acute ICF Core Sets by their ability to predict nursing workload. ⋯ A substantial fraction of the variance in nursing workload in patients with rehabilitation needs in the acute hospital could be predicted by selected categories of the Acute ICF Core Sets, or by the Barthel Index score. Incorporating ICF Core Set-based data in nursing management decisions, particularly staffing decisions, may be beneficial.