Although growing more slowly than in recent years, spending for health continued to account for an increasing share of the Nation's gross national product. In 1983, spending for health amounted to 10.8 percent of the gross national product, or $1,459 per person. Public programs financed 40 percent of all personal health care spending. Medicare and Medicaid expended $91 billion in benefits, 29 p...

Background: Minimally invasive hysterectomy is generally preferable to abdominal hysterectomy. The technicity index (TI) is the proportion of hysterectomies performed by minimally invasive surgery. Many centers globally have started to audit local TI as a quality indicator, but only a handful have published their results to help define international standards of care. <st...

As national health care reform advances, increasing attention is being paid to the adequacy of existing resources to meet health care needs. Do we have the right mix of providers and facilities? Are they located and organized efficiently? These persistent questions are especially relevant to the provision of emergency care, in which timely access can save lives. This Issue Brief describes the f...

What is it to have a reason? According to one common idea, the Factoring Account, you have a reason to do A when there is a reason for you to do A which you have—which is somehow in your possession or grasp. In this paper, I argue that this common idea is false. But though my arguments are based on the practical case, the implications of this are likely to be greatest in epistemology: for the p...

Given the problematic nature of attempts to reform national delivery systems for health care, the paper reviews the context and logic of reforms in the health sector. After a background on approaches to building capacity within three generations of public sector reforms, it examines the reforms applied to financing, organizing and delivering health services and suggests strategies for reform th...

This study evaluates the success of the monthly deposit of funds into hypothetical retirement portfolios for the period January 1926 to December 2003. The results of the study indicate that, in general, portfolios with a higher equity portion had a greater likelihood of achieving the desired terminal value. We also find that monthly deposits based on the historical asset class returns generally...

Given the problematic nature of attempts to reform national delivery systems for health care, the paper reviews the context and logic of reforms in the health sector. After a background on approaches to building capacity within three generations of public sector reforms, it examines the reforms applied to financing, organizing and delivering health services and suggests strategies for reform th...

A case of selection and adaptation of weekly work schedules is presented. Weekly work schedules in two franchises of an important retail clothing chain have to be established. Working time accounts are used: each week, an employee can owe the company a certain number of hours or vice versa. Nevertheless, over a certain threshold, the hours have to be paid for by the company and the account bala...

helicobacter pylori infection is a common health problem related to many gastrointestinal disorders. this study aims to estimate the total and age specific prevalence of helicobacter pylori infection in iran. we systematically reviewed all national and international databases and finally identified 21 studies were eligible for meta-analysis. each of them were assigned a quality score using stro...