Health services research
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Health services research · Aug 2008
Does reimportation reduce price differences for prescription drugs? Lessons from the European Union.
To examine the effect of parallel trade on patterns of price dispersion for prescription drugs in the European Union. ⋯ Parallel trade for prescription drugs does not automatically reduce international price differences. Future research should explore how other regulatory schemes might lead to different results elsewhere.
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Health services research · Aug 2008
Hospital nurse practice environments and outcomes for surgical oncology patients.
To examine the effect of nursing practice environments on outcomes of hospitalized cancer patients undergoing surgery. ⋯ This study is one of the first to examine the predictive validity of the National Quality Forum's endorsed measure of the nurse practice environment. Improvements in the quality of nurse practice environments could reduce adverse outcomes for hospitalized surgical oncology patients.
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Health services research · Aug 2008
Use of VA and Medicare services by dually eligible veterans with psychiatric problems.
To examine how service accessibility measured by geographic distance affects service sector choices for veterans who are dually eligible for veterans affairs (VA) and Medicare services and who are diagnosed with mental health and/or substance abuse (MH/SA) disorders. ⋯ As geographic distance to VA medical facility increases, Medicare plays an increasingly important role in providing mental health services to veterans.
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Health services research · Aug 2008
Editorial CommentEfforts to expand physician supply deserve scrutiny.
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Access to high quality medical care is an important determinant of health outcomes, but the quality of care is difficult to determine. ⋯ PRIDIT allows us to rank hospitals with respect to quality of care using process measures and demographic attributes of the hospitals. This method is an alternative to the use of clinical outcome measures in measuring hospital quality. Hospital quality measures should take into account the differential value of different quality indicators, including hospital "demographic" variables.