OBJECTIVES To discover the views of patients about their experiences across the interface between primary and secondary health care, including referral from general practitioners, outpatient and inpatient care, discharge, and aftercare. DESIGN A qualitative study involving individual and focus group interviews of patients and interviews of carers. SUBJECTS 33 patients who had attended at le...

This study aims to examine whether the urban elderly in the Zhejiang Province of China signed contracts with their general practitioner (GP) based on their health service needs, and to further identify the determinants of their demand and signing decisions. A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in 16 community health service (CHS) institutions in Zhejiang Province, China. The ur...

Die ontwikkeling van gemeenskapsgesondheidsdienste vir die Arabiese plattelandse bevolking in Israel sedert 1948 word bespreek. Daar word veral gekyk na die ervarings van die verpleegkundiges, geneeshere en sanitêre werkers in die veld. Hulle het nie net met gesondheidsprobleme te kampe gehad nie, maar ook met talle kulturele struikelblokke in die lewering van voorkomende, genesende en rehabili...

BACKGROUND To identify social factors determining the frequency of community health service (CHS) utilization among CHS users in China. METHODS Nationwide cross-sectional surveys were conducted in 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011. A total of 86,116 CHS visitors selected from 35 cities were interviewed. Descriptive analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis were employed to analyze charac...

This is the first study in Australia to test definitions of various types of 'episodes of care'. The definitions reported here are those used in the 1996 National Sub-Acute and Non-Acute Patient (SNAP) Casemix Classification Study. The study collected data on a total of 683 patients at 10 hospitals and 2 community health services providing a range of rehabilitation, aged care and community care...

BACKGROUND Global interest and investment in close-to-community health services is increasing. Kenya is currently revising its community health strategy (CHS) alongside political devolution, which will result in revisioning of responsibility for local services. This article aims to explore drivers of policy change from key informant perspectives and to study perceptions of current community hea...

Ipswich Hospital Emergency Department played a vital role in the Post Acute Treatment in the Home Program (PATH) of West Moreton District Health Service. PATH used two strategies to reduce the district reliance on acute hospital beds: a short-stay unit for rapid assessment, treatment and early discharge of patients with simple conditions; and a hospital-in-the-home program utilising community h...

OBJECTIVE to measure the cost-effectiveness of an early discharge and rehabilitation service (EDRS) in Nottingham, UK. DESIGN data were collected during a randomised controlled trial. METHODS cost and cost-effectiveness analyses were conducted from the perspective of service providers (health and social services) over a period of 12 months. Resource variables included were the EDRS interven...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of a model of rural community health service (CHS) on the use and acceptability of primary healthcare services. DESIGN Quasi-experimental. SETTING Two adjacent rural counties in China. PARTICIPANTS 5842 residents in 2009 and 3807 in 2010 from 980 households in 7 intervention townships and 49 villages; 2232 residents in 2009 and 2315 in 2010 from 628 househ...

BACKGROUND This paper explores how community participation can be used in designing rural primary healthcare services by describing a study of Scottish communities. Community participation is extolled in healthcare policy as useful in planning services and is understood as particularly relevant in rural settings, partly due to high social capital. Literature describes many community participati...