Health services research
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Health services research · Feb 2012
"Does this doctor speak my language?" Improving the characterization of physician non-English language skills.
To describe the initial impact of an organizational policy change on measurement of physician non-English language proficiency. ⋯ The organization was willing to adopt a relatively straightforward change in how data were collected and presented to patients based on the face validity of initial findings. This organizational policy change appeared to improve how self-reported physician language proficiency was characterized.
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Health services research · Dec 2011
Variation in hospital costs, payments, and profitabilty for cardiac valve replacement surgery.
Examine the variation for Medicare and privately insured patients in hospital costs, payments, and contribution margins and their association with characteristics of the patients, hospitals, and hospital markets. ⋯ Hospitals charge significantly higher prices and earn significantly higher contribution margins from private insurers than from Medicare for patients undergoing cardiac valve replacement.
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Health services research · Dec 2011
Randomized Controlled Trial"All the money in the world …" patient perspectives regarding the influence of financial incentives.
To analyze patient perspectives of the use of financial incentives in a hypertension intervention. Study Setting. Twelve Veterans Affairs primary care clinics over a 9-month period. ⋯ The findings of this study raise questions about the appropriateness and unintended consequences of employing patient-directed financial incentives in health care settings.
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Health services research · Oct 2011
Multicenter StudyQuality and cost analysis of nurse staffing, discharge preparation, and postdischarge utilization.
To determine the impact of unit-level nurse staffing on quality of discharge teaching, patient perception of discharge readiness, and postdischarge readmission and emergency department (ED) visits, and cost-benefit of adjustments to unit nurse staffing. ⋯ Postdischarge utilization costs could potentially be reduced by investment in nursing care hours to better prepare patients before hospital discharge.
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Health services research · Oct 2011
Rural hospital ownership: medical service provision, market mix, and spillover effects.
To test whether nonprofit, for-profit, or government hospital ownership affects medical service provision in rural hospital markets, either directly or through the spillover effects of ownership mix. ⋯ Rural hospital ownership affects medical service provision at the hospital and market levels. Nonprofit hospital regulation should reflect both the direct and spillover effects of ownership.