IK ITS FIRST YEAR of operation, the Mediewe program has removed many of the financial barriers t,hat prevented older people from seeking medical cue ;rnd that ~larrowed the tlwrapeuti(~ &erniltives available to them. Through its standards for participation and its contributions to the surge of imerest in the development of research and in t,he training and retraining of personnel, Medicare has ...

A pilot project in a rural district of Tamil Nadu, India in which health is taught as a subject in primary schools by hospital-based staff is described.

The goal of this study was to establish the understanding and appreciation of the essence of PHC principles in the two Primary Health Care (PHC) communities. The PHC communities in this study referred to the people who were involved in the operation of the phenomenon, that is health professionals working in the health care centers and the communities served by these health care centers. It was ...

BACKGROUND This project is a community-level study of equity of access to eye health services for Indigenous Australians. METHODS The project used data on eye health services from multiple sources including Medicare Australia, inpatient and outpatient data and the National Indigenous Eye Health Survey.The analysis focused on the extent to which access to eye health services varied at an area ...

PURPOSE Shenzhen is the first pilot city in China implementing the gatekeeper policy, with community health service (CHS) centers as the gatekeepers. We aim to investigate patient satisfaction with this policy and its influencing factors in Shenzhen. METHODS 3,848 patients visiting eight CHS centers in Shenzhen of China between May 1 and July 28, 2013 were recruited. We interviewed them using...

This column describes and evaluates the Harris County Community Behavioral Health Program, a new integrated care program operating in community health centers serving low-income uninsured residents in Houston, Texas. Patient service data, provider satisfaction, patient outcome data, and appointment waiting periods were obtained to evaluate the initial operation of the program. The integrated ca...

Portugal, in 2005, initiated to reconfigure its health centers, an action referred to as the reform of primary health care, with the objective to improve accessibility, efficiency, quality and the continuity of care, and increase the satisfaction of the population and the professionals. The health center groups were reorganized and new types of units were created. Also, at the same time, the he...

Paralleled with the rapid socio-economic development and demographic transition, an epidemic of non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) has emerged in China over the past three decades, resulting in increased disease and economic burdens. Over the past decade, with a political commitment of implementing universal health coverage, China has strengthened its primary healthcare system and increas...

The enactment of comprehensive health reform will bring about important changes to the health insurance and health care delivery systems. Community health centers will play a role in implementing many health reform provisions and in providing access to care for millions of Americans who will gain health insurance coverage under the law. To meet this new demand for services, particularly in unde...