OBJECTIVE To assess the effects on hospital utilization rates of a major health system reform - a family physician programme and a social protection scheme - undertaken in rural areas of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 2005. METHODS A "tracer" province that was not a patient referral hub was selected for the collection of monthly hospitalization data over a period of about 10 years, beginning...

BACKGROUND This study evaluates the impact of a new 'Preparation for Internship' (PRINT) course, which was developed to facilitate the transition of University of New South Wales (UNSW) medical graduates from Medical School to Internship. METHODS During a period of major curricular reform, the 2007 (old program) and 2009 (new program) cohorts of UNSW final year students completed the Clinical...

Globally and regionally, hospitals absorb around 50%–70% of total government health expenditure, employ a large workforce and make extensive use of sophisticated biomedical technology. Improvement of hospital performance as part of improving overall health system performance is high on the reform agenda of countries in the Region. This paper raises awareness of the gaps in hospital performance ...

This paper represents the first research attempt to estimate the probabilities of Vietnamese patients falling into destitution due to financial burdens occurring during a curative hospital stay. The study models risk against such factors as level of insurance coverage, residency status of patient, and cost of treatment, among others. The results show that very high probabilities of destitution,...

A central problem in designing effective models of provider governance in health systems has been to ensure an appropriate balance between the concerns of public sector and/or government decision-makers, on the one hand, and of non-governmental health services actors in civil society and private life, on the other. In tax-funded European health systems up to the 1980s, the state and other publi...

In urban China, many non-clinically indicated cesarean sections (NCSs) are performed, resulting in an unnaturally high cesarean section (CS) rate. NCSs represent CSs without any specific medical indications. The demand for NCS may be due to women's preference for CS and their belief in its safety and comfortableness. In addition, CS is more profitable for the supply side than vaginal delivery, ...

BACKGROUND Hospital inpatient complications are one of a number of adverse health care outcomes. Reducing complications has been identified as an approach to improving care and saving resources as part of the health care reform efforts in the United States.An objective of this study was to describe the Potentially Preventable Complications software developed as a tool for evaluating hospital in...

No tort reform has more potential to improve the quality of medical care and to reduce the frequency of patient injuries than exclusive hospital enterprise liability. Hospital enterprise liability would make hospitals liable for all patient injuries occurring in the hospital that are the product of provider negligence, regardless of the independent contractor status of the providers. In its “ex...

BACKGROUND The new round of Healthcare Reform in China has implemented over 3 years since 2009, and promoted greatly the development of public county hospitals. The purpose of this study is to evaluate county hospitals efficiency before and after the healthcare reform, and further assess the reform effectiveness through the comparative analysis of the efficiency. METHODS Data envelopment anal...