Information is provided on the use and cost of inpatient services for Medicare beneficiaries discharged from participating specialty hospitals during 1985. Specialty hospitals include: psychiatric, general long-term, rehabilitation, children's, alcohol and drug, and Christian Science sanatoriums. Specialty units of short-stay hospitals are not included in the specialty hospital data presented i...

CONTEXT Recent specialty choices of graduating US medical students suggest that lifestyle may be an increasingly important factor in their career decision making. OBJECTIVE To determine whether and to what degree controllable lifestyle and other specialty-related characteristics are associated with recent (1996-2002) changes in the specialty preferences of US senior medical students. DESIGN...

OBJECTIVE Despite the documented utility of regionalized systems of pediatric specialty care, little is known about the actual use of such systems in total populations of chronically ill children. The objective of this study was to evaluate variations and trends in regional patterns of specialty care hospitalization for children with chronic illness in California. METHODS Using California's O...

BACKGROUND The emergence of physician owned specialty hospitals focusing on high margin procedures has generated significant controversy. Yet, it is unclear whether physician owned specialty hospitals differ significantly from non physician owned specialty hospitals and thus merit the additional scrutiny that has been proposed. Our objective was to assess whether physician owned specialty ortho...

Policy issues related to dental specialty education and practice have been the responsibility of the American Dental Association's Council on Dental Education and Licensure. In 2001, the council concluded a comprehensive study of the ADA-recognized dental specialties that included a review of specialty practice and the practice environment, membership in specialty organizations, requirements an...