International journal of health care quality assurance
-
Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2010
Healthcare reforms and cost reduction strategies in Europe: the cases of Germany, UK, Switzerland, Italy and France.
This paper aims to analyse health reforms carried out in a sample of European countries. ⋯ The paper compares healthcare reform effectiveness in a number of western European countries.
-
Int J Health Care Qual Assur · Jan 2010
Developing severity adjusted quality measures for intensive care units.
Intensive care unit performance evaluation is usually affected by variations in the severity of inpatients' health status. This paper aims, therefore, to standardize two performance measures: intensive care unit survival and length of stay using the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II (APACHE II) severity of illness score. ⋯ The paper underlines the need to implement a standardized measurement system to evaluate intensive care patient outcomes.