OBJECTIVE To identify, from a systematic review of the literature, the attributes of Family Medicine (FM) that influence the primary health care outcome as measured by users' satisfaction, improvement in patient health and in costs. DATA SOURCES Literature search of Medline and the Cochrane library using MeSH terms 'Primary Health' or 'Family Practice' or 'Family Physicians' and 'Outcome Asse...

This study employs exploratory factor analysis and scale construction methods with commercial Health Plan Employers Data Information Set (HEDISS) process of care and outcome measures from 1999 to uncover evidence for a unidimensional composite health maintenance organization (HMO) quality scale. Summated scales by categories of care are created and are then used in a factor analysis that has a ...

In the nearly 18 months that have elapsed following enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), health care scholars have debated a key portion of the legislation that has the potential to dramatically impact health care. Section 6301 of the PPACA outlines how the federal government will play an increasingly direct role in shaping comparative effectiveness research (CER...

Objective A crucial part of the assessment process is access to an accurate patient weight. To understand how health care practitioners access recorded weight it is necessary to examine the possible barriers to this in everyday practice and the relationship to patient outcomes. This paper will examine how patient weight is integrated in existing health care systems which require accurate weight...

OBJECTIVE To review the literature on the subject of quality improvement principles and methods applied to pharmacy services and to describe a framework for current and future efforts in pharmacy services quality improvement and effective drug therapy management. BACKGROUND The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy produced the Catalog of Pharmacy Quality Indicators in 1997, followed by the Summar...

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The rapid change in our entire life influences directly or indirectly the systems that controls our knowledge, skills and behaviour. The evolution of our culture is one of the major indicators for this change. Our educational system has been influenced by this rapid change over the time and technology is increasingly used in learning settings. Assessment as a part of the educational system is e...

PURPOSE To determine if and how the outcome quality from a client perspective is related to process characteristics and structure of Regional Individual Needs Assessment Agencies (RIOs) regulating access to long-term care services in The Netherlands. THEORY Because of decentralised responsibilities, ultimo 1999 85 RIOs were set up. RIOs differ in their structural and process characteristics. ...

BACKGROUND to our knowledge no research has investigated the effect of home visiting nurse (HVN) interventions on individual instrumental activities of daily living (IADL). OBJECTIVE to investigate the effects of an HVN intervention on the difficulty or dependence in six individual IADLs. DESIGN a secondary analysis of a randomised controlled study comparing an HVN intervention (n = 237) wi...

Colorectal cancer is a common, detectable, and treatable malignancy. Given the aging of the population, the number of patients diagnosed with colorectal cancer will likely increase; thus, efforts to improve the quality and delivery of appropriate care to patients with colorectal cancer are needed. The overarching goal of this article is to summarize recent efforts to evaluate and improve the qu...