Three hundred and seventy-six patients with treated diastolic blood pressures of less than 105 mm Hg and no history of accelerated hypertension or renal failure were selected from among those attending the Hammersmith Hospital hypertension clinic. Their average lying treated blood pressure was 146 mm Hg systolic and 90 mm Hg diastolic and average age 56 years; 18% were black, 6% Asian, and 76% ...

The aim of this article is to collect and compare opinions medical personnel on electronic records (EMR) systems used in health care facilities Poland, both outpatient (i.e. urgent care) inpatient clinics hospitals).

OBJECTIVES To examine quantitatively the effects of an increase in patient copayments from 10% to 20% on the demand for medical services in Japan. METHODS The subjects of the study were the employees insured by the 1,797 health insurance societies, belonging to the National Federation of Health Insurance Societies, in 1996 and 1998. Indicators of medical service demands analyzed include the i...

BACKGROUND The prevalence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is growing globally and hospital-based outpatient clinics are burdened with increasing numbers of patients. To ensure high quality treatment and care, it is necessary to structurally reorganise the management of patients with T2D. The objective of this study is to test if T2D patients (who are at intermediate risk of or are already having incip...

BACKGROUND Assessing the impact of cost sharing on healthcare utilization is a critical issue in health economics and health policy. It may affect the utilization of different services, but is yet to be well understood. OBJECTIVE This paper investigates the effects of reducing cost sharing for outpatient services on hospital admissions by exploring a subsidy policy for children's outpatient s...

Accurately measuring the quality of cardiovascular care and attempting to determine the sources of quality deficits are difficult challenges, particularly in the outpatient setting. Clinical trials have documented the benefits of warfarin in atrial fibrillation, angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors in systolic heart failure, and aspirin and betaadrenergic blocking agents in myocardial...

Original articles (full text in e-version) 390 Prevalence of vulvovaginitis and relation to physical findings in girls assessed for suspected child sexual abuse Gisel Rahman, Dolores Ocampo, Anahí Rubinstein and Paula Risso 397 Effectiveness and safety of a clinical decision rule for guiding the management of children with pneumonia vaccinated against pneumococcal disease. A controlled clinical...

AIMS To evaluate the feasibility of a nurse-monitored, outpatient-care program for elderly patients previously hospitalized with chronic heart failure. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with chronic heart failure hospitalized in the medical wards were screened to find those eligible for a randomized study to compare the effect of a nurse-monitored, outpatient-care programme aiming at symptom manag...

In recent decades, outpatient commitment orders have been increasingly used in the follow-up of persons with serious mental disorders. Most studies on outpatient commitment orders have focused on compliance and consumption of health care services; there is little research on the content of outpatient commitment orders from a patient perspective. The aim of this study is to examine patients' exp...

Telephone calls have long been integral to health care delivery. Patients often contact physicians to determine whether symptoms require a face to face visit, and physicians call patients to follow up oYce visits. As it became increasingly clear that patient education for chronic disease requires time beyond a single oYce visit, telephone-based intervention became viewed as a potential eVective...