Information Technologies (IT) have been described as offering tremendous opportunity to improve health services as well as in meeting broader developmental goals which have an impact on health. Through the use of IT, healthcare sectors can potentially plan, monitor and evaluate health services as well as communicate more effectively within and across organizational hierarchies. However, a numbe...

We have the technology. What is needed is government financial commitment, so argues Kristen Jakobsen in the following discussion of "telemedicine." The term refers to the delivery of health care services by means of modern telecommunications technology. According to Ms. Jakobsen, the telephone, the fax machine, the Internet, and interactive audio-visual transmissions hold the key to making med...

All national development plans of Nigeria in the past have stressed that the health care delivery system should be changed from its curative bias to a preventive bias because many of the diseases in the country are preventable. Nevertheless, they were "not able to achieve much success. In the current development plan, however, measures have been taken to correct some of the weakness of the earl...

East Carolina University College of Allied Health Science's Department of Health Services Management program is partnering with Community Care of North Carolina and Access East to transform medical practices and educate students on the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of health care delivery. Why now? The Affordable Care Act (2010) and other health care reform changes brought to the f...

The link between antenatal care (ANC) and facility delivery is a specific example of the effect of early medical contacts on later use of essential services. The role of ANC in improving maternal health remains unclear. High levels of ANC are reported in a number of countries where skilled delivery remains uncommon. ANC may influence the use of services by increasing willingness to use services...

In 1965, while approving Medicare, Congress reflected the prevailing view that such a program should not be used to alter arrangements for medical care. The whole intent was to assure payment for services; even to tinker with the system of health care delivery was looked upon as undesirable. The Medicare legislation specified: “Nothing in this title shall be construed to authorize any Federal o...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Bill, commonly referred to as the "Health Care Bill" or the "Health Care Reform Bill," was enacted in March 2010. This article is a review and analysis of the sections of this Act that are relevant to researchers and teachers of emergency care. The purpose of this document is to serve as a citable reference for interested parties and a reference to qui...

BACKGROUND Cervical cancer is a public health problem in developing countries. Cytology of the uterine cervix has been promoted to change this situation, the coverage thereof not being adequate for many different reasons. This study is aimed at delving into the relationship between the recent cervical cytology performed and that performed three years previous to the survey, insurance and access...

CONTEXT The perinatal period is one during which health care services are in high demand. Like other health care sub-sectors, perinatal health care delivery has undergone significant changes in recent years, such as the integrative wave that has swept through the health care industry since the early 1990s. PURPOSE The present study aims at reviewing scholarly work on integrated perinatal care...

More than a buzzword for the 21st century, coordinated/integrated health services delivery is a necessity. From changing demographics and increasing chronicity to the persisting threat of communicable diseases, coupled with modern technologies, rising patient expectations and a perpetual context of fiscal constraints, new and innovative approaches to the delivery of health care, that ensure hig...