BACKGROUND The Supply Chain Management System (SCMS) is a contract managed under the Partnership for Supply Chain Management (PFSCM) consortium by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). SCMS procures commodities for programmes supported by the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). From 2005 to mid-2012, PEPFAR, through SCMS, spent approximately $384 mi...

AIMS To analyse whether gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) was associated with increases in healthcare utilisation after delivery. METHODS A longitudinal case-control registry-based study of 579 women with GDM delivered in 1995-2001. Two controls for each case were selected from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, matched for year of birth, year of delivery, and municipality of...

BACKGROUND In this study we investigated the distribution of self-reported health care utilisation by education and household income in a county population in Norway, in a universal public health care system based on ideals of equal access for all according to need, and not according to wealth. METHODS The study included 24,147 women and 20,608 men aged 20 years and above in the third Nord-Tr...

OBJECTIVES To investigate the association between the trends of CT utilisation in an emergency department (ED) and changes in clinical imaging practice and patients' disposition. SETTING A hospital-based retrospective observational study of a public 1520-bed referral medical centre in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS Adult ED visits (aged ≥18 years) during 2009-2013, with or without receiving CT, were ...

Allied health services benefit the management of many chronic diseases. The effects of health insurance on the utilisation of allied health services has not yet been established despite health insurance frequently being identified as a factor promoting utilisation of medical and hospital services among people with chronic disease. The objective of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to...

The aim of this modelling study was to investigate the effect of large herd size (and land areas) on walking distances and milking interval (MI), and their impact on milk yield and economic penalties when 50% of the total diets were provided from home grown feed either as pasture or grazeable complementary forage rotation (CFR) in an automatic milking system (AMS). Twelve scenarios consisting o...

BACKGROUND The study aimed to identify thresholds for hospital bed utilisation which are independently associated with significantly higher risks for Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) in acute hospitals in England. METHOD A retrospective analysis was carried out on reported data from the English National Health Service (NHS) for the financial year 2013/2014. Reported rates of CDI were us...

OBJECTIVES To describe utilisation of general practitioners by elderly people resident in communal establishments; to examine variations in general practitioner utilisation and estimate the likely impact of the "downsizing" of long stay provision in NHS hospitals. DESIGN Secondary analyses of the survey of disability among adults in communal establishments conducted by the Office of Populatio...

BACKGROUND In order to scale up mental health care nationally, barriers to health services utilisation need to be identified and addressed. AIM The aim of this study was to identify barriers to mental health services utilization in Sudan from the perspectives of carer's of mentally ill patients and psychiatrists and to make recommendations to address the identified barriers. METHODS Mixed r...

OBJECTIVES to describe variation in utilisation of carotid endarterectomy (CEA) within two English health regions and explore relationships between use, need and proximity to services. DESIGN consecutive case series of operations. Comparison at a population level with district stroke mortality, hospital admissions and material deprivation. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES standardised utilisation rate...