The aim of the study was to survey perceptions of quality of (primary) health care services provided in rural communities in the Limpopo province. Ten focus groups discussions were held with community members chosen by convenience from public places from four villages in the central region of the Limpopo Province. The sample included 42 women and 34 men (76 participants). Results indicated perc...

Patient presentation in primary care ranges from psychosocial considerations to physical and mental health concerns including serious mental illness. To best prepare for addressing all aspects of health, integrated primary care practices should be equipped with the expertise and resources to appropriately treat the range of presentations. We conducted a literature review of research articles to...

With the implementation of Electronic Health Record (EHR), the patients' health information will reside on the network of computers that can be accessed through a variety of techniques and technologies. One of the widely used present-day communication technology is the mobile/cell phone that has great potential in the healthcare delivery and management as the healthcare providers can remotely a...

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), access to insurance and coverage of preventive care services has been expanded. By removing the barrier of shared costs for preventive care, it is expected that an increase in utilization of preventive care services will reduce the cost of chronic diseases. Early detection and treatment is anticipated to be less costly than treatment at ...

OBJECTIVE To establish how health care service utilization patterns are associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL) perception in older adults. MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross-sectional study in adults aged 60 years or more was conducted in a random sample of 1150 beneficiaries of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in Mexico City during 2003. Health care services utilization ...

Health status and health care utilization among children are profoundly influenced by health insurance coverage. Uninsured and underinsured children are less likely than adequately insured children to receive preventive health care, have a usual source of care, and receive health care within a medical home that addresses their comprehensive needs. Gaps in health insurance coverage may lead to d...

In the Nordic countries much health care and preventive medicine takes place in general practice. And among general practitioners (GPs) there is an ongoing debate on whether they should devote more or less time to preventive measures and health care. There has been much debate on whether the benefi ts of preventive health care truly outweigh the costs and the adverse effects. Some GPs fear that...

BACKGROUND People with a mental illness experience substantial disparities in health, including increased rates of morbidity and mortality caused by potentially preventable chronic diseases. One contributing factor to such disparity is a higher prevalence of modifiable health risk behaviors, such as smoking, inadequate fruit and vegetable intake, harmful alcohol consumption, and inadequate phys...

PiEDIATRICS, with its modern combined curative, preventive and social perspectives, and working in firm alliance with preventive medicine, is, or should be, one of the most important aspects of medical education in the technically developing regions of the tropics, including East Africa. Reasons for this are numerical and qualitative, and also because a healthy childhood population represents t...

INTRODUCTION Since the beginnings of the modern era, medicine has evolved tremendously. Merely two hundred years ago, American and European medical treatments were generally provided by independent physicians who went from home to home to offer their services. From this form of medicine, often referred to as " bedside medicine " , (1) Western countries started to move towards a more centralized...