The implementation of managed care for children with special health care needs is often associated with apprehension regarding new barriers to health care services. At times, these barriers may overshadow opportunities for improvement. This statement discusses such opportunities, identifies challenges, and proposes active roles for pediatricians and families to improve managed care for children...

primary care physicians' visit services for diabetes management are now widely delivered in china's rural public health care. current studies mainly focus on supply but risk factors from patients' view have not been previously explored. this study aims to present the utilization of rural primary care physicians' visit services for diabetes management in the last 12 months in southwestern china,...

A pilot study on elderly patients' end-of-life needs was performed at a Swedish geriatric palliative ward. Thirty patients (15 men and 15 women; mean age, 79 years) with a primary diagnosis of cancer and admitted for palliative care were interviewed by a nurse using semistructured interviews. The study included demographic data, physical and psychologic status, and naming and ranking of individ...

Unmet information needs of physicians and patients are common, but those of nurse care managers - defined as collaborative care planners for with chronic conditions - are less well understood. We taped and transcribed daily activities and conducted semi-structured interviews of 7 care managers, and analyzed questions elicited through this work through a variety of frameworks.

In the mid-1990s, everyone knew that health care organizations across the United States were plagued by wasteful spending. The question for Intermountain Healthcare, which serves residents of Utah and Idaho, was where to start looking for savings internally. Data analyses quickly identified the most promising targets: 104 of the 1,440 clinical conditions that Intermountain treated accounted for...

Palliative care is increasingly available and the importance of its role increasingly recognized. International work toward making palliative care a basic human right underscores the growing need to ensure comfort and pain relief for the terminally ill. The organizational structures in place for providing such care vary greatly within and across countries; even definition of the term is not uni...

BACKGROUND Limited research has been conducted to assess family needs in neonatal intensive care units. Health care providers often make assumptions about what families need, but these assumptions are unfounded and can lead to inappropriate conclusions. When assessed appropriately, family needs can be incorporated into individualized plans of care, enhancing family-centered care. OBJECTIVE To...