BACKGROUND Outpatient care facilities provide a variety of basic healthcare services to individuals who do not require hospitalisation or institutionalisation, and are usually the patient's first contact. The provision of outpatient care contributes to immediate and large gains in health status, and a large portion of total health expenditure goes to outpatient healthcare services. Payment meth...

This paper discusses methodological and care strategies or tools used in basic health care practice. It is based on the dialogue established between what we think and what we carry out at the Life Quality Promotion Outpatient Centers (APQVs). These centers are located at two basic health care centers in Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil. Its users are mostly adult and elderly patients with long-term illn...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS Previous studies showed that chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) accounts for billions of dollars in healthcare resource utilization. However, all such study estimates of the economic burden of CRS were based on subpopulations in Western societies. This study aimed to investigate differences in the utilization of healthcare services between subjects with CRS and comparison subjec...

Background: World Health Organization (WHO) defines three goals to assess the performance of a health system: the state of health, fairness in financial contribution and responsiveness. We assessed the responsiveness of health system for patients with diabetes in a defined population cohort in Tehran, Iran. Methods: Total responsiveness and eight domains (prompt attention, dignity, communica...

A major goal of the municipal health services program (MHSP) was improvement of health services for the elderly while containing Medicare reimbursement. A Health Care Financing Administration financed Medicare waiver program provided some additional benefits to Medicare Part B enrollees who used the MHSP clinics. Disadvantaged and sicker elderly groups were underrepresented in MHSP facilities. ...

background informal payments for health care, which are common in many countries, can have negative effects on health care access, equity and health status as they lead people to forgo or delay seeking care, or to sell assets to pay for care. many countries are putting reforms in place with the aim of reducing informal payments. in order to be successful, such policies should be informed by the...

background & aim: prenatal care is a key strategy for achieving public health goals, primary healthcare objectives, and the millennium development goals. the aim of this study was to investigate the factors influencing the use of prenatal care services in order to design suitable interventions and promote the use of these services. methods:in this systematic quantitative literature review, stud...

Mental health services in the Eastern Mediterranean Region are predominantly centralized and institutionalized, relying on scarce specialist manpower. This creates a major treatment gap for patients with common and disabling mental disorders and places an unnecessary burden on the individual, their family and society. Six steps for reorganization of mental health services in the Region can be o...

BACKGROUND Expanding insurance coverage is designed to improve access to primary care and reduce use of emergency department (ED) services. Whether expanding coverage achieves this is of paramount importance as the United States prepares for the Affordable Care Act. OBJECTIVES Emergency and outpatient department use was examined after the State Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) cover...

BACKGROUND As many patients with severe mental illness (SMI) who have complex needs are difficult to engage, outreach mental health services are needed to engage them into treatment. The extent to which these services exist in large European cities is unknown. METHODS Experts in 29 European countries were sent a structured questionnaire containing two case vignettes of difficult-to-engage pat...