OBJECTIVE To examine if individual risk of unplanned medical admissions (UMAs) was associated with municipality general practitioner (GP) or long-term care (LTC) volume among the entire Norwegian elderly population. DESIGN Cross-sectional population-based study. SETTING 428 of 430 Norwegian municipalities in 2009. PARTICIPANTS All Norwegians aged ≥65 years (n=721 915; 56% women-15% of the...

Long-term hospitalization is a problem for psychiatric care in Japan. The purpose of this research was to clarify the demands placed on public health nurses' (PHN) involved in the discharge of long-term inpatients (LIPs) with mental illness, and their lack of support. A questionnaire was mailed to 516 health centers, and 112 health centers replied. The response rate was 21.7 percent. The mail s...

A striking conclusion from the Institute of Medicine’s recent report on geographic variation in Medicare spending is that post-acute care is the largest driver of overall variation.1 Medicare pays for post-acute care — short-term skilled nursing and therapy services for patients recovering from acute illness (typically after a hospitalization), provided by home health agencies, skilled nursing ...

BACKGROUND Research into relational care in hospitals will be facilitated by a focus on staff-patient interactions. The Quality of Interactions Schedule (QuIS) uses independent observers to measure the number of staff-patient interactions within a healthcare context, and to rate these interactions as 'positive social'; 'positive care'; 'neutral'; 'negative protective'; or 'negative restrictive'...

BACKGROUND Demand for dialysis treatment exceeds its supply within the Veterans Health Administration (VA), requiring VA to outsource dialysis care by purchasing private sector dialysis for veterans on a fee-for-service basis. It is unclear whether outcomes are similar for veterans receiving dialysis from VA versus non-VA providers. We assessed the extent of chronic dialysis treatment utilizati...

PURPOSE Elder self-neglect (ESN) represents half or more of all cases reported to adult protective services. ESN directly affects older adults and also their families, neighbors, and the larger communities around them. ESN has public health implications and is associated with higher than expected mortality rates, hospitalizations, long-term care placements, and localized environmental and safet...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of the study was to examine the frequency of burdensome care transitions at the end of life, the difference between different types of residential care facilities, and the changes occurring between 2002 and 2008. DESIGN A nationwide, register-based retrospective study. SETTING Residential care facilities offering long-term care, including traditional nursing homes, sh...

BACKGROUND The impact of Clostridium difficile colonization in C. difficile infection (CDI) is inadequately explored. As a result, asymptomatic carriage is not considered in the development of infection control policies and the burden of carrier state in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) is unknown. PURPOSE To explore the epidemiology of C. difficile colonization in LTCFs, identify predisposi...

purpose: to compare the effects of short-tem and long-term systemic corticosteroids in the treatment of confirmed ocular toxoplasmosis. methods: this randomized comparative clinical trial was performed on 69 patients with confirmed active ocular toxoplasmosis with typical clinical manifestations. the subjects were randomly assigned to receive either 10 days (group a, 33 cases) or 4-6 weeks (gro...