Medical care
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
The effect of automated calls with telephone nurse follow-up on patient-centered outcomes of diabetes care: a randomized, controlled trial.
We evaluated the impact of automated telephone disease management (ATDM) calls with telephone nurse follow-up as a strategy for improving outcomes such as mental health, self-efficacy, satisfaction with care, and health-related quality of life (HRQL) among low-income patients with diabetes mellitus. ⋯ This intervention had several positive effects on patient-centered outcomes of care but no measurable effects on anxiety or HRQL.
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Quantified measures of unmet health care needs can be used to evaluate health care interventions, assess the impact of managed care, monitor health status trends in populations, or assess equity of access to medical care across population subgroups. Such a measure needs to be simple, relatively easy to obtain, inexpensive, and appropriately targeted to the population of interest. ⋯ The symptoms-response ratio provides a good balance of a simple and inexpensive measure while yielding a fair estimate of unmet needs for primary care. This analysis created a pediatric measure targeted to the needs of young children and adolescent females.
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The quality of coding for breast surgical procedures was examined by comparing hospital discharge abstracts and physician claims with data abstracted from records of women diagnosed with node-negative breast cancer from April 1, 1991, to December 31, 1991. ⋯ Overall, definitive surgical procedure in the two administrative databases accurately reflected information recorded in patients' charts. Physician claims appeared to provide more accurate information than did hospital discharge data.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Benefit-cost analysis of brief physician advice with problem drinkers in primary care settings.
Few studies have estimated the economic costs and benefits of brief physician advice in managed care settings. ⋯ These results offer the first quantitative evidence that implementation of a brief intervention for problem drinkers can generate positive net benefit for patients, the health care system, and society.