Culturally competent healthcare systems-those that provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services-have the potential to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities. When clients do not understand what their healthcare providers are telling them, and providers either do not speak the client's language or are insensitive to cultural differences, the quality of health care can be compr...

BACKGROUND Unsafe abortions are a serious public health problem and a major human rights issue. In low-income countries, where restrictive abortion laws are common, safe abortion care is not always available to women in need. Health care providers have an important role in the provision of abortion services. However, the shortage of health care providers in low-income countries is critical and ...

BACKGROUND Globally, universal access to sexual and reproductive health care services has been re-emphasised. One-third of maternal deaths could be averted by improving access to safe abortion services. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the implementation of the Choice of Termination of Pregnancy Act has been suboptimal in South Africa. OBJECTIVES In two South African provinces, determine: the...

OBJECTIVE To explore the impact of HIV/AIDS on maternity care providers in labor and delivery in a high HIV-prevalence setting in sub-Saharan Africa. DESIGN Qualitative one-on-one in-depth interviews with maternity care providers. SETTING Four health facilities providing labor and delivery services (2 public hospitals, a public health center, and a small private maternity hospital) in Kisum...

BACKGROUND As in many fragile and post-conflict countries, South Africa's social contract has formally changed from authoritarianism to democracy, yet access to services, including health care, remains inequitable and contested. We examine access barriers to quality health services and draw on social contract theory to explore ways in which a post-apartheid health care contract is narrated, pra...

We present qualitative research findings about how perceptions of criminal prosecutions for the transmission of HIV interact with the provision of high-quality HIV health and social care in England and Wales. Seven focus groups were undertaken with a total of 75 diverse professionals working in clinical and community-based services for people with HIV. Participants' understanding of the law in ...

OBJECTIVES Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) undergo multiple testing and referral to specialists, and often use complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) services. The objectives of the study were: (i) to document health service utilization, and (ii) to examine whether psychological vulnerability was associated with visits to physicians and CAM providers. METHODS Women (N = 178) with a diagnosi...

BACKGROUND The bottom of the pyramid concept suggests that profit can be made in providing goods and services to poor people, when high volume is combined with low margins. To-date there has been very limited empirical evidence from the health sector concerning the scope and potential for such bottom of the pyramid models. This paper analyzes private for-profit (PFP) providers currently offerin...

In an effort to address the high cost of health care, the federal government, commercial health plans, and other organizations are defining and using measures of health care spending for the purposes of rewarding or penalizing physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers, defining provider networks, and encouraging patients to use particular providers. For example, in the Medicare pro...

Transgender youth often face difficulties when accessing sexual health services. However, few studies investigate health service providers' perceptions of transgender youth, and fewer focus on sexual health. To fill this gap, our study draws on social representations theory to examine sexual health service providers' perceptions of transgender youth and how this influences the provision of heal...