INTRODUCTION A high number of emergency (999) calls are made for older people who fall, with many patients not subsequently conveyed to hospital. Ambulance crews do not generally have protocols or training to leave people at home, and systems for referral are rare. The quality and safety of current practice is explored in this study, in which for the first time, the short-term outcomes of older...

Advancements in medical science and technology, medicine and public health coupled with increased consciousness about nutrition and environmental and personal hygiene have paved the way for the dramatic increase in life expectancy globally in the past several decades. However, increased life expectancy has given rise to an increasing aging population, thus jeopardizing the socio-economic struct...

BACKGROUND Residential address is a common element in patient electronic medical records. Guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention specify that residence in a nursing home, skilled nursing facility, or hospice within a year prior to a positive culture date is among the criteria for differentiating healthcare-acquired from community-acquired methicillin-resistant Staph...

Background The Concurrent Engineering Research Center (CERC) at West Virginia University is developing and deploying applications for secure collaborative telemedicine in rural hospitals, clinics, and homes in West Virginia to evaluate its impact on the delivery of healthcare. These applications illustrate the utility of collaborative telemedicine technologies to improve the delivery of healthc...

BACKGROUND Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibles are the beneficiaries of both Medicare and Medicaid. Dual eligibles satisfy the eligibility conditions for Medicare benefit. Dual eligibles also qualify for Medicaid because they are aged, blind, or disabled and meet the income and asset requirements for receiving Supplement Security Income (SSI) assistance. The objective of this study is to explore t...

During graduate studies in a nursing administration program, an opportunity presented itself to travel to a rural Russian community of 10,000 to study the healthcare system. The Russian healthcare system has not changed much since the Soviet days. All healthcare facilities are government owned and all healthcare providers are government employees. Basic healthcare provided to citizens is paid f...

BACKGROUND Professional misconduct in healthcare, a (generally) lasting situation in which patients are at risk or actually harmed, can jeopardise the health and well-being of patients and the quality of teamwork. Two types of professional misconduct can be distinguished: misconduct associated with incompetence and that associated with impairment. This study aimed to (1) quantify home-care nurs...

We live in a dynamic world, and like it or not, nothing is more constant than change. No one knows this better than home health managers and clinicians. The changes in home health practice over the past 20 years have been radical and tumultuous. Over these years, home health managers and clinicians have faced not only revolutionary changes in clinical practice, requiring new knowledge and skill...

BACKGROUND Many people with dementia die in nursing homes, but quality of care may be suboptimal. We developed the theory-driven 'Compassion Intervention' to enhance end-of-life care in advanced dementia. OBJECTIVES To (1) understand how the Intervention operated in nursing homes in different health economies; (2) collect preliminary outcome data and costs of an interdisciplinary care leader ...

Pain is often undertreated and underreported in the elderly. Many of these individuals receive home healthcare services for management of their conditions. Home healthcare agencies (HHAs) have outcome measures that are publicly reported. The purpose of this project was to implement an evidence-based (EB) guideline bundle to improve the outcome measure "Improvement in Pain Interfering With Activ...