OBJECTIVE To investigate the outpatient access to nuclear medicine procedures by means of the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), analyzing the correspondence between data provided by this system and those from Comissão Nacional de Energia Nuclear (CNEN) (National Commission of Nuclear Energy). MATERIALS AND METHODS Data provided by Datasus regarding number of scintillation chambers, outpa...

BACKGROUND The family medicine residency program consists mainly of clinical rotations in other specialties and the family medicine-specific training. We conducted this study to investigate how family medicine residents evaluated their training program that include family-oriented medicine, clinical preventive medicine, behavioral science and research in primary care. METHODS In 2009, third-y...

BACKGROUND Combined procedures involving elective breast surgery at the time of abdominoplasty are frequently performed procedures in aesthetic plastic surgery. While found to be safe outpatient procedures, many surgeons elect to perform combined abdominoplasty/breast surgery as inpatient surgery. This study was performed to explore the practice of performing the combined procedure as an inpat...

BACKGROUND Because of recent changes in criteria for coverage for inpatient hospital stays, most nonacute percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures are reimbursed on an outpatient basis regardless of underlying patient risk. Downstream effects of these changes on the risk profile of patients undergoing outpatient PCI have not been evaluated. METHODS AND RESULTS Using the American Co...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to assess recent trends in health resource utilisation and patient outcomes of Medicare beneficiaries with chronic liver disease (CLD). SETTING Liver-related mortality is the 10th leading cause of death in the USA, and hepatitis C virus (HCV) and obesity-related non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are the major causes of CLD. As the US population ages and beco...

Image-guided interventional procedures provide a safe way to diagnose and treat a variety of head and neck abnormalities. The procedure time is usually short, and most procedures can be performed on an outpatient basis. Knowledge about strengths and weaknesses, efficacy, potential complications, and pitfalls of these procedures allows the best treatment to be chosen for a particular lesion type...

Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction is performed as an outpatient procedure in selected cases. Whether it can be safely performed on a routine basis in day clinic remains unclear. Our hypothesis was that routinely performing outpatient anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction would be equally safe as compared to inpatient procedures. A cohort of 355 patients who underwent outpatient prim...

BACKGROUND Outpatient unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) has been shown to be safe and feasible when compared with inpatient surgery; however, no studies have evaluated the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of performing outpatient versus inpatient UKA. HYPOTHESIS Significant cost savings can be achieved by transitioning UKAs from an inpatient to an outpatient procedure in an outpatie...

STUDY DESIGN Prospective comparative study. PURPOSE To compare the incidence and severity of adverse reactions associated with myelography performed in outpatients vs. in inpatients and report the safety and usefulness of outpatient myelography in Japanese patients. OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE Myelography is normally performed as an inpatient procedure in most hospitals in Japan. No studies have...

BACKGROUND A "teachable moment" is an event that motivates spontaneous behavior change. Some evidence suggests that major surgery for a smoking-related illness can serve as a teachable moment for smoking cessation. This study tested the hypotheses that surgery increases the likelihood of smoking cessation and that cessation is more likely after major surgical procedures compared with outpatient...