although mental health program has been adopted as one of the components of the primary health care program in iran since 1989 its cost effectiveness has not yet been evaluated in any form. the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of mental health program regarding the treatment of epileptic patients in the kurdestan province.in order to achieve the above goal in ...

Outpatient commitment (OPC), a major form of involuntary community-based treatment, has evolved in the United States on a state-by-state basis amidst a storm of controversy. The polarizing debate that has gone on intensely about OPC for the last two decades has all too often been devoid of data. This article reviews the various arguments pro and con about OPC, and then examines the research on ...

Same-day percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is a reality with modern interventional equipment and pharmaceutical agents. Elective PCI is rarely an inpatient procedure and is now predominantly considered an outpatient procedure. Approaches to safely manage elective patients through same-day PCI have been well described in the literature and demonstrate no safety signal compared with overni...

Objectives Variation in patterns of referral from primary care can lead to inappropriate overuse or underuse of specialist resources. Our aim was to review the literature on strategies involving primary care that are designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of outpatient services. Methods A scoping review to update a review published in 2006. We conducted a systematic literature sea...

Background: Poorly coordinated care between hospital and outpatient settings, and delayed access to primary care contributes to hospital readmissions. Given financial penalties for readmissions, hospitals are investing in interventions to improve care transitions following discharge. In parallel, Medicaid managed care organizations are providing incentives to primary care clinics to improve car...

OBJECTIVE To examine the use and cost of the nonindicated treatment regimens of antibiotics for nonspecific upper respiratory tract infections (URIs) in a Medicaid population. DESIGN A cross-sectional sample of Kentucky Medicaid claims for 50000 people (July 1, 1993-June 30, 1994). SETTING Episodes of care were created linking outpatient and emergency department visits for URIs to medicatio...

Few studies have examined adverse drug events (ADEs) in outpatient care, and identification of these events is difficult. We are using a computerized text-searching ADE monitor to assess rates of outpatient ADEs. The monitor searches notes in the outpatient electronic medical record for drug-symptom combinations that signal possible ADEs. We collected 6 months of data from outpatient sites in B...

OBJECTIVE -The purpose of this study was to calculate the total number of inpatient hospitalizations, outpatient clinic visits, and total direct health care costs associated with veterans with diabetes receiving care in Veterans Administration (VA) facilities. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS-The number of inpatient hospitalizations is tracked for years 1994-1998, and outpatient clinic visits are tr...

BACKGROUND We attempted to identify the domain of self-rated health (SRH) that best predicts medical care utilization among Taiwanese adults. In addition, we examined the association between SRH and different measure of medical care utilization. METHODS We analyzed data on 11 987 community-dwelling adults aged 18 to 64 years from the 2005 Taiwan National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). NHIS d...