Articles: patients.
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The American Society of Anesthesiologists' (ASA) Physical Status Classification was tested for consistency of use by a questionnaire sent to 304 anesthesiologists. They were requested to classify ten hypothetical patients. Two hundred fifty-five (77.3 percent) responded to two mailings. ⋯ Academic anesthesiologists rated a greater number identical than did those in private practice (P less than 0.01). There was no difference in ratings between those who used the classification for billing purposes and those who did not. The ASA Physical Status Classification is useful but suffers from a lack of scientific precision.
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Case Reports Comparative Study
The social and economic costs of end-stage renal disease. A patient's perspective.
The soical and economic effects of end-stage renal disease are enormous. This case history of our experience with dialysis and transplantation details our life with these two modes of treatment. ⋯ Even those in middle-income brackets find it difficult to maintain their independence under such circumstances. New legislation extending Medicare coverage of home dialysis and transplantation should help to alleviate these problems in the future.
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The utilization of the emergency room (E. R.) at a small community hospital located in a black inner-city area is investigated. Patients are classified according to a criterion for psychiatric intervention for the purpose of making staffing pattern recommendations. ⋯ R., and circumstances of mode of arrival in the E. R. The criterion of psychiatric intervention is viewed as providing an additional dimension in the study of the emergency room, a hospital service which is providing increasing routine and non-routine medical care to the general population.