Bmc Health Serv Res
-
Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2012
Variation in cancer surgical outcomes associated with physician and nurse staffing: a retrospective observational study using the Japanese Diagnosis Procedure Combination Database.
Little is known about the effects of professional staffing on cancer surgical outcomes. The present study aimed to investigate the association between cancer surgical outcomes and physician/nurse staffing in relation to hospital volume. ⋯ Well-staffed hospitals confer a benefit for cancer surgical patients regarding reduced FTR, irrespective of hospital volume. These results suggest that consolidation of surgical centers linked with migration of medical professionals may improve the quality of cancer surgical management.
-
Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2012
Mandatory quality reports in Germany from the hospitals' point of view: a cross-sectional observational study.
Public reporting of hospital quality is to enable providers, patients and the public to make comparisons regarding the quality of care and thus contribute to informed decisions. It stimulates quality improvement activities in hospitals and thus positively impacts treatment results. Hospitals often use publicly reported data for further internal or external purposes.As of 2005, German hospitals are obliged to publish structured quality reports (QR) every two years. This gives them the opportunity to demonstrate their performance by number, type and quality in a transparent way. However, it constitutes a major burden to hospitals to generate and publish data required, and it is yet unknown if hospitals feel adequately represented and at the same time consider the effort appropriate.This study assesses hospital leaders' judgement about the capability of QR to put legally defined aims effectively and efficiently into practice. It also explores the additional purposes hospitals use their QR for. ⋯ German hospitals consider the mandatory QR as only partially capable to put the legally defined aims effectively and efficiently into practice. In order for public reporting to achieve its potentially positive effects, the QR must be more closely aligned to the needs of hospitals.
-
Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2012
Integrated complex care coordination for children with medical complexity: a mixed-methods evaluation of tertiary care-community collaboration.
Primary care medical homes may improve health outcomes for children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN), by improving care coordination. However, community-based primary care practices may be challenged to deliver comprehensive care coordination to complex subsets of CSHCN such as children with medical complexity (CMC). Linking a tertiary care center with the community may achieve cost effective and high quality care for CMC. The objective of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of community-based complex care clinics integrated with a tertiary care center. ⋯ Complex care can be provided in community-based settings with less direct tertiary care involvement through an integrated clinic. Improvements in health care utilization and family-centeredness of care can be achieved despite minimal changes in parental perceptions of child health.
-
The study of length of stay (LOS) outliers is important for the management and financing of hospitals. Our aim was to study variables associated with high LOS outliers and their evolution over time. ⋯ In the last years both average LOS and high LOS outliers are increasing in Portuguese NHS hospitals. As high LOS outliers represent an important proportion in the total inpatient days, this should be seen as an important alert for the management of hospitals and for national health policies. As expected, age, type of admission, and hospital type were significantly associated with high LOS outliers. The proportion of high outliers does not seem to be related to their financial coverage; they should be studied in order to highlight areas for further investigation. The increasing complexity of both hospitals and patients may be the single most important determinant of high LOS outliers and must therefore be taken into account by health managers when considering hospital costs.
-
Bmc Health Serv Res · Jan 2012
Integrating evidence into policy and sustainable disability services delivery in western New South Wales, Australia: the 'wobbly hub and double spokes' project.
Policy that supports rural allied health service delivery is important given the shortage of services outside of Australian metropolitan centres. The shortage of allied health professionals means that rural clinicians work long hours and have little peer or service support. Service delivery to rural and remote communities is further complicated because relatively small numbers of clients are dispersed over large geographic areas. The aim of this five-year multi-stage project is to generate evidence to confirm and develop evidence-based policies and to evaluate their implementation in procedures that allow a regional allied health workforce to more expeditiously respond to disability service need in regional New South Wales, Australia. ⋯ The project will provide policy makers with research evidence to support consideration of the complex balance between: (i) the equitable allocation of scarce resources; (ii) the intent of current eligibility and prioritisation policies; (iii) workforce constraints (and strengths); and (iv) the most effective, evidence-based clinical practice.