Health policy
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
A comparison of patient characteristics and rehabilitation treatment content of chronic low back pain (CLBP) and stroke patients across six European countries.
So far no studies have been conducted on the issue of comparability of rehabilitation treatment profiles and patient characteristics across countries. These aspects might have implications for the feasibility of treating patients abroad but also for the comparison of treatment outcome on an international level. ⋯ International treatment and outcome assessment of CLBP patients is not possible unless standardisation is considered of treatment content and patient selection. For stroke treatment international traffic and multi-centre outcome assessment might be more feasible.
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Review
Evaluating and planning ICUs: methods and approaches to differentiate between need and demand.
In all western countries the demand for ICU-services is increasing and complaints about a lack of ICU-beds arise--independent of the actual density of ICU-services. The demand for more ICU-beds triggered a debate on whether it is possible to define an "objective" need. It was the aim of the assessment to analyze conventional as well as innovative approaches to plan and to evaluate ICU-services. ⋯ In countries with a high density of ICU-services--such as Austria and Germany--not an expanding of the capacities, but a better use of the existing resources is recommended. For a fair comparison, participation in national databases, in registers as well as benchmarking and quality-assurance programs should be enforced.