The American journal of medicine
-
To assess the clinical and economic effects of disease management in patients with chronic diseases. ⋯ Disease management programs were associated with marked improvements in many different processes and outcomes of care. Few studies demonstrated a notable reduction in costs. Further research is needed to understand how disease management can most effectively improve the quality and cost of care for patients with chronic diseases.
-
The goals of this study were to determine if very early revascularization might ameliorate the adverse prognosis associated with ST-segment depression in patients with unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. ⋯ ST-segment depression and T-wave inversion on the admission ECG were important predictors of outcome in patients with unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction undergoing very early revascularization. In contrast to the considerable mortality seen in patients with ST-segment depression, T-wave inversion was associated with a more favorable outcome.
-
Many hospital departments tend to have lower staffing levels on weekends. We evaluated the use of selected urgent procedures for emergently hospitalized patients and measured the time until procedure based upon the day of hospital admission. ⋯ Relatively few urgent procedures are performed in emergently hospitalized patients on the weekend, suggesting that greater attention to weekend care might result in more timely interventions and shorter lengths of stay.