OBJECTIVES Against the public health implications of untreated mental illness among general hospital inpatients, this study aimed firstly to examine hospital physicians' level of referral to a psychiatric service, and secondly, to explore the extent of these doctors' knowledge of psychiatric issues by comparing their reasons for referring patients with patients' final psychiatric diagnoses. M...

BACKGROUND The Personal Crisis Support Team at Bergen Accident and Emergency Department offers open access interventions for individuals that have experienced a psychosocial crisis. The aim of the study was to investigate contacts to the personal crisis support team, causes of contact and referrals. MATERIAL AND METHODS All contacts in 2006 were included in the study. Variables such as patien...

BACKGROUND We used the insurance claims of a representative cohort to quantify the patterns of ambulatory care visits, especially the doctor-shopping phenomenon, in Taiwan. METHODS The ambulatory visit files of the 200,000-person cohort datasets from the National Health Insurance Research Database in 2002 were analyzed. Only a visit with physician consultation would be considered. We computed...

BACKGROUND Emergency department (ED) visits for asthma may reflect poor asthma control, often due to insufficient asthma education and medical follow-up. However, few patients consulting an ED for asthma are referred for education. AIMS To describe a model for automatic referral to educational interventions targeting patients consulting at the ED for acute asthma, to demonstrate how this mode...

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND US Associated/Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) include three freely associated states: Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, and three Territories: American Samoa, Guam, and Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. OBJECTIVE The Pacific Island Health Care Project (PIHCP) provides humanitarian medical referral/consultation/care to >500,000 indi...

BACKGROUND To influence self-referral, it is crucial to know a patient's motives to directly visit the emergency department (ED). The goal of this study is to examine motives for self-referral to the ED and compare these motives in relation to appropriateness. METHODS All self-referred patients visiting the ED of a Dutch hospital over four separate months in a 1-year period were included. Pat...

Primary care is an emerging setting for suicide prevention efforts. Psychologists can play a valuable role in not only consulting to primary care but also assisting with the management of suicidal youth. This article describes the Pennsylvania Youth Suicide Prevention in Primary Care model. After detailing the model, a brief study is reported whereby the intervention of primary care staff train...

OBJECTIVES This study investigated pharmacists' and pharmacy assistants' current practices and perspectives with regard to oral healthcare provision across Australian community pharmacies. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. A questionnaire for each pharmacist and pharmacy assistant cohort was developed and administered by online or postal means. Pearson's χ2 test was used to examine relationships ...

INTRODUCTION: The evaluation and management of emergency department (ED) consults is an essential competency in plastic surgery residency. Trainees usually perform these duties under indirect attending supervision. However, no formal curriculum exists to prepare trainees for the requirements of on-call coverage and there is minimal literature on the frequency and nature of ED consults requiring...