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 The morbidity and mortality from asthma have markedly increased since the late 1970s. The hospitalization rate, an important marker of asthma severity, remains substantial. METHODS In adults with health care access, we prospectively studied 242 with asthma, aged 18-50 years, recruited from a random sample of allergy and pulmonary physician practices in Northern California to identi...

introduction: supplementary health care services are provided to offer health care services beyond existing medical services at a reasonable cost to all members. these supplementary health care services contribute to the health and quality of life of the members and therefore membership provides peace of mind and a sense of security. this study aimed at investigating supplementary health care s...

background and objectives: patient readmission is an important criterion in performance evaluation of healthcare settings. identifying the causes of the readmissions would help the policymakers in designing strategies for efficient management of health facilities. this stud aimed to explore factors contributing to readmission by sampling from an iranian hospital. methods: clinical records of 38...

Introduction: Hospitalization due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation (eCOPD) may indicate worse prognosis. It is important to know the profile of hospitalized patients and their outcome of hospitalization to customize and optimize treatment. Method: Evaluation of patients hospitalized for eCOPD, with ≥ 10 pack/years and ≥ 1 previous spirometry with airway obstruction over t...

Methods We examined involuntary hospitalization in the city of Frankfurt/Main with regard to diagnoses, socio-demographic data, complementary psychosocial outpatient care, and circumstances of hospitalization. There are four psychiatric clinics, each serving a catchment area of more than 165.000 inhabitants. These clinics are responsible for all psychiatric in-patient treatments regardless of t...

A retrospective analysis of hospitalizations due to infection in 175 injection drug users was performed for the 3 years before and the period during their participation in an injection opiate maintenance program (mean duration during program, 2.6 years). Skin infections were the main reason for hospitalization. The injection opiate maintenance program did not reduce the incidence of infection l...

OBJECTIVE To test the hypothesis that hospitalization in old age is associated with subsequent cognitive decline. METHODS As part of a longitudinal population-based cohort study, 1,870 older residents of an urban community were interviewed at 3-year intervals for up to 12 years. The interview included a set of brief cognitive tests from which measures of global cognition, episodic memory, and...

BACKGROUND Street-involved youth who use illicit drugs are at high risk for health-related harms; however, the profile of youth at greatest risk of hospitalization has not been well described. We sought to characterize hospitalization among street-involved youth who use illicit drugs and identify the most frequent medical reasons for hospitalization among this population. METHODS From January...

objective: to validate the triage ratings performed by the electronic triage system (ets) using hospitalization, length of stay, resource use, in-hospital mortality and patient bills as outcome measures. methods: in this retrospective cross-sectional study the medical records of 387 patients were reviewed in a one-week period. the data included triage category and the outcome measures were hosp...