An exploratory home health care (HHC) cost-function model is estimated using State rate-setting data for the 74 traditional (nonprofit) Connecticut agencies. The analysis demonstrates U-shaped average costs curves for agencies' provision of skilled nursing visits, with substantial diseconomies of scale in the observable range. It is determined from the estimated cost function that the sample re...

OBJECTIVE This report presents national estimates on differences in the use of home health care between men and women aged 65 years and over. METHODS Estimates are based on data from the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. RESULTS In the United States, men aged 65 years and over used...

Care coordination is a process that facilitates the linkage of children and their families with appropriate services and resources in a coordinated effort to achieve good health. Care coordination for children with special health care needs often is complicated because there is no single point of entry into the multiple systems of care, and complex criteria frequently determine the availability...

By including the precepts of primary care and the medical home in the delivery of services, managed care can be instrumental in increasing access to a full range of health care services and clinicians. If not designed and administered carefully, managed care plans result in underutilization of appropriate services and reduced quality of care. Therefore, the American Academy of Pediatrics urges ...

Methods A standardized questionnaire was used and the results were evaluated by an expert panel from the departments involved. To evaluate differences, we compared data from an audit held in 2010. The total number of patients was 933 in March 2010 and 937 in April 2011. The number of readmitted patients within 30 days was 14 in March 2010 and 37 medical and 24 surgical patients in April 2011. W...

When refugees resettle in the United States, their health burdens are many and often unusual, their stories are unique and compelling and their access to health care difficult. The evolution of the Hasbro Hospital Refugee Health Clinic has not only addressed refugee health, but has provided an opportunity for medical student education. In the Refugee Health Clinic, medical students can combine ...

This paper addresses how families' roles and responsibility for care are constructed within home health (in contrast to the responsibility of home health). A discourse analysis informed by a critical theoretical approach was used to analyze qualitative interviews with 13 home health managers and clinical leaders in British Columbia, alongside home care documents. When referring to family involv...

Many stroke survivors will be cared for at home, primarily by their relatives. Providing care to a family member with a chronic disabling disease can be both emotionally and physically distressing for the caregivers. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between patients' characteristics, duration of caregiving, daily caregiving time, caregiver's characteristics, caregiv...

This article describes the Medicare home health benefit and summarizes growth and change in the use of the benefit and in the industry providing home health care. The article also details the organization and goals of the Home Health Initiative, describes its four key components--quality assurance (QA), administration, policy, and research-and concludes with a discussion of the status of the In...

This policy statement, which replaces the retired statements "Health Care for Children of Immigrant Families" (1997) and "Health Needs of Homeless Children and Families" (1996), is a broader discussion and addresses not only immigrant but also homeless and migrant child populations. It provides pediatricians with the necessary framework for addressing underserved children: those who face substa...