The aim of this study was to verify the use of outpatient health services and associated factors among women ages 20 to 60 years living in the urban area of São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. This was a cross-sectional, population-based study with a sample of 1,026 women in 2003. The association between the independent variables and the outcome was evaluated by means of prevalence r...

Health care services are increasingly delivered in outpatient settings. However, infection control oversight in outpatient settings to ensure patient safety has not improved and literature quantifying reported health care-associated infection outbreaks in outpatient settings is scarce. The objective of this analysis was to characterize investigations of suspected and confirmed outbreaks in outp...

BACKGROUND Continuity of GP care is associated with reduced hospitalisations, but solid documentation of its relationship to use of outpatient specialist services is lacking. AIM To test the association between continuity of GP care and use of inpatient and outpatient specialist services. DESIGN AND SETTING A cross-sectional population-based study with questionnaire data from the sixth Trom...

OBJECTIVE This study examined national patterns of outpatient service use by veterans from regions affected by Hurricane Katrina. METHODS Analyses tracked use of general medical and mental/substance use services in September and October through December 2005 in New Orleans and Biloxi-Gulfport compared to a cohort receiving care during the same months in the previous 2 years. RESULTS In adju...

Missed appointments and non-attendance at outpatient clinics are a major cause of inefficiency in the health service. It is estimated that this problem currently costs the Health Service Executive (HSE) up to €33 million annually; each individual non-attendance costs €80 and adds a burden to lengthening waiting lists and a potential delay in assessment and treatment of the non-attending patient...

BACKGROUND Targeted campaigns have been reported to disrupt routine health services in low- and middle-income countries. The objective of this study was to evaluate the average effect of public health campaigns over 1 year on routine services such as antenatal care, routine vaccination and outpatient services. METHOD We collected daily activity data in 60 health facilities in two regions of C...

BACKGROUND Overall, men are less likely than women to seek health care services for mental health problems, but differences between genders in higher age groups are equivocal. The aim of the current study was to investigate the association between gender and the use of psychiatric outpatient specialist services in Norway, both in a general population and in a subpopulation with self-reported an...

background decentralisation aims to bring services closer to the community and has been advocated in the health sector to improve quality, access and equity, and to empower local agencies, increase innovation and efficiency and bring healthcare and decision-making as close as possible to where people live and work. fiji has attempted two approaches to decentralisation. the current approach refl...

In recent decades, outpatient commitment orders have been increasingly used in the follow-up of persons with serious mental disorders. Most studies on outpatient commitment orders have focused on compliance and consumption of health care services; there is little research on the content of outpatient commitment orders from a patient perspective. The aim of this study is to examine patients' exp...