Health Services Research articles from June 2007

Health Services Research archives from June 2007

AHRQs national healthcare quality and disparities reports: an ever-expanding road map for improvement.(AHRQ Update)(Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
June 1, 2007... In my April 2006 AHRQ Update (Clancy 2006) I discussed enhancements to the National Healthcare Quality Report (NHQR 2006) and the National Healthcare Disparities Report (NHDR 2006), annual reports produced by the Agency for Healthcare Research...

From the editors: announcing a new feature in HSR and a call for papers.(Health Services Research)(Editorial)
June 1, 2007... Health Services Research (HSR) is pleased to announce a new feature called "The Theme Series." The journal will from to time issue a call for papers on a specific "theme" considered to be of particular significance to the field and importance...

Estimating the effects of prescription drug coverage for Medicare beneficiaries.(Utilization and Access)(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... The recent experience enrolling Medicare beneficiaries in Part D prescription drug plans raises important questions about the stability and affordability of the new coverage. The Part D benefit relies on Medicare beneficiaries voluntarily...

Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic differences in the discussion of cancer screening: "between-" versus "within-" physician differences.(Utilization and Access)(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... Cancer is the leading cause of death in the United States for those younger than 85, surpassing cardiovascular disease (Jemal et al. 2005). Effective screening techniques are available for early stage detection of several major types of cancer...

Utilization of infertility services: how much does money matter?(Utilization and Access)
June 1, 2007... For many women, the major questions in contemplating pregnancy are "Do I want children?" or "When is the best time for me to have a child?" However, for the nearly seven million infertile couples in the United States, the path to parenthood is...

Laws requiring health plans to provide direct access to obstetricians and gynecologists, and use of cancer screening by women.(Utilization and Access)
June 1, 2007... Reacting to patient and provider dissatisfaction with the restrictive practices of managed care plans during the 1990s, many states adopted managed care patient protection regulations designed to restrain these health plan activities (Blendon...

Inequalities in use of health services among Jews and Arabs in Israel.
June 1, 2007... Low socioeconomic status (SES) has been associated with poorer health in developed countries (Haan, Kaplan, and Syme 1989). Poorer health could be a result of inadequate use of health care services. Factors, such as type of insurance, culture,...

The effects of health sector market factors and vulnerable group membership on access to alcohol, drug, and mental health care.(Mental Health and Substance Abuse)(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... Access to care for alcohol, drug, and mental health (ADM) conditions is the outcome of a complex dynamic involving demand and supply factors at both the system and individual levels. While some research posits that access for everyone in the...

Veterans affairs health system and mental health treatment retention among patients with serious mental illness: evaluating accessibility and availability barriers.(Mental Health and Substance Abuse)(Author abstract)(Clinical report)
June 1, 2007... Access to health services may be understood in terms of distinct dimensions of the fit between characteristics of potential clients and those of providers (Penchansky and Thomas 1981). The influence of specific dimensions of access may be...

Do state parity laws reduce the financial burden on families of children with mental health care needs?(Mental Health and Substance Abuse)(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... The intent of parity laws is to improve equity in private insurance coverage for mental health care. Health insurers have covered mental health care at a significantly lower level than coverage for other conditions for many years (U.S. Bureau...

Nurse working conditions, organizational climate, and intent to leave in ICUs: an instrumental variable approach.(Organization and Staffing)(intensive care units)
June 1, 2007... High turnover has been recognized as a problem in many service industries including health care (Mor Barak et al. 2001). Although it is important to note that turnover, in and of itself, is not necessarily bad, there are inevitably costs...

Nurse staffing levels and medicaid reimbursement rates in nursing facilities.(Organization and Staffing)
June 1, 2007... Many studies have documented the importance of nursing staff in both the process and the outcomes of nursing home care (Aaronson, Zinn, and Rosko 1994; Bliesmer et al. 1998; Carter and Porell 2003; USCMS 2001; Grabowski 2001a, b; Harrington et...

Primary care practice organization influences colorectal cancer screening performance.(Organization and Staffing)
June 1, 2007... Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major source of preventable cancer morbidity and mortality, accounting for 10 percent of all U.S. cancer deaths (American Cancer Society 2004). Despite the availability of effective screening tests and widespread...

Organizational culture and physician satisfaction with dimensions of group practice.(Organization and Staffing)
June 1, 2007... Most physicians in the United States now work in group practice settings (Wassenaar and Thran 2003). The reasons why physicians have integrated into group practices are well known (Charns 1997; Robinson 1999). Much less is known, however, about...

Improving quality assessment through multilevel modeling: the case of nursing home compare.(Nursing Home Performance)(Author abstract)(Clinical report)
June 1, 2007... Many health care quality assessment systems rely on data from patient-level outcomes in order to draw inference about provider performance. Providers having higher rates of adverse outcomes (e.g., infections, pressure sores, or mortality) are...

Doing better to do good: the impact of strategic adaptation on nursing home performance.(Nursing Home Performance)
June 1, 2007... The performance of nursing homes, particularly with respect to the quality of care, has been the subject of public policy concern for some time (Institute of Medicine 1986, 2001). Increased regulatory scrutiny was imposed by the 1987 Nursing...

Mixing web and mail methods in a survey of physicians.(Methods)
June 1, 2007... Investigating the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and concerns of physicians via survey is vitally important given their role in the provision of health care and shaping the health care system. However, response rates to surveys of physicians...

Interpersonal processes of care survey: patient-reported measures for diverse groups.(Methods)
June 1, 2007... Evidence of racial/ethnic disparities in quality of care is accumulating rapidly. Widespread disparities have been observed in many components of quality such as effectiveness of care for chronic and acute health conditions, patient safety,...

Measuring organizational attributes of primary care practices: development of a new instrument.(Methods)(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... The impact of the work environment on clinical performance and outcomes is receiving renewed interest by health systems researchers, health care administrators, and policy makers (IOM Committee on Quality of Health Care in America 2001;...

International migration of nurses: introduction.
June 1, 2007... The migration of highly skilled workers from less-developed nations to industrialized nations is an inevitable part of the process of globalization and has positive and negative aspects. Those potentially advantaged often include the...

Nurses on the move: a global overview.(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... The number of international migrants on the move every year continues to increase. There has been a particularly marked growth in labor migration flows to industrialized countries in recent years (Zlotnik 2003). People with tertiary education...

U.S. nurse labor market dynamics are key to global nurse sufficiency.(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... The United States plays a pivotal role in the global migration of nurses. It has the largest professional nurse workforce of any country in the world, numbering almost 3 million in 2004 (USDHHS 2006). The United States has almost one-fifth of...

International recruitment of nurses: policy and practice in the United Kingdom.(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... This paper reports on international migration and recruitment of nurses to the United Kingdom in the period up to 2005. The paper outlines the health and labor market context in the United Kingdom, examines the dynamics of the U.K. nursing...

Nurse migration: a Canadian case study.(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... Canada is projecting a significant registered nurse (RN) shortage in the near future with a shortfall of over 100,000 by 2016 (Canadian Nurses Association [CNA] 2002). Immigration has been suggested by some as an important policy lever to...

Managed migration: the Caribbean approach to addressing nursing services capacity.
June 1, 2007... OVERVIEW The migration of individuals for labor-related purposes has been one of the strongest common themes in the Caribbean since the 1400s. Over the ensuing five centuries, whether through forced labor and indentured servitude or...

Migration of nurses from Sub-Saharan Africa: a review of issues and challenges.
June 1, 2007... This paper was commissioned by AcademyHealth to "identify and review reports, documents and data relating to nursing workforce dynamics" in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with the objective of analyzing, synthesizing, and presenting key information...

Developing a nursing database system in Kenya.
June 1, 2007... Improving the health of the world requires investment in human resources. Human resources for health (HRH) are increasingly recognized as an essential component for overcoming diseases and ensuring global health (Buchan and Calman 2004;...

Nurse migration from a source country perspective: Philippine country case study.(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... This case study provides information on Philippine nurse migration patterns and presents a sending-country perspective on the benefits and costs of this phenomenon. Our aim is to identify strategies that will ensure that international nurse...

Potential of China in global nurse migration.(Author abstract)
June 1, 2007... China has a population of 1.3 billion people and represents one of the world's largest reservoirs of human resources. Because of the relative isolation from global commercial activities until the last two decades, its potential for supplying...

International nurse recruitment in India.
June 1, 2007... India is an overpopulated large country with the potential to supply English-speaking workers in many different fields to developed countries (GCIM 2005; Khadria 1999, 2005; NCAER 2005). As the demand for nurses rises worldwide, commercial...