OBJECTIVE To determine whether bioethicists are distributed along a rural-to-urban continuum in a way that reflects potential need of those resources as determined by the general population, hospital facilities and hospital beds. METHODS US members of a large, multidisciplinary professional society, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), the US population, hospital facilitie...

BACKGROUND Frequent and long-term commuting is a requirement for dialysis patients. Accessibility thus affects their quality of lives. In this paper, a new model for accessibility measurement is proposed in which both geographic distance and facility capacity are taken into account. Simulation of closure of rural facilities and that of capacity transfer between urban and rural facilities are co...

BACKGROUND The U.S. population is aging at an unprecedented rate, resulting in an increased demand for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and long-term care. Residents of these facilities are at a high risk for pneumococcal disease or severe influenza-related illnesses and death. For these reasons, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services use influenza and pneumococcal vaccination rates as...

In the present research, a multi-objective model is proposed, which considers equity among the citizens in addition to the cost criterion. Then, the model will be solved using Reservation Level Tchebycheff Procedure (RLTP), which is one of the interactive multi-objective decision-making techniques. Subsequently, the obtained results will be compared with those of the single-objective models to ...

BACKGROUND Shortages of health workers are obstacles to utilising global health initiative (GHI) funds effectively in Africa. This paper reports and analyses two countries' health workforce responses during a period of large increases in GHI funds. METHODS Health facility record reviews were conducted in 52 facilities in Malawi and 39 facilities in Zambia in 2006/07 and 2008; quarterly totals...

BACKGROUND With regards to equity, the objective for health care systems is "equal access for equal needs". We examined associations of predisposing, enabling and need factors with health facility utilization in areas with high HIV prevalence and few people being aware of their HIV status. METHODS The data is from a population-based survey among adults aged 15years or older conducted in 2003....