SEARCH · PubMed Health
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.
The importance of outpatient services to hospitals' total net patients revenues continues to increase steadily. In fact, nearly one-third of those participating in our fourth annual survey on diversification gauged outpatient services as providing 30 percent or more of their total net patient revenues in 1990.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
OBJECTIVES: The Medicare Trust Fund is expected to be bankrupt in the next decade, thus threatening the viability of the Medicare Program. We have ascertained what Medicare enrollees' priorities for insured services would be, and why, if it were fiscally necessary to limit Medicare benefits to maintain the viability of the Program. DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey using anonymous, inperson interviews and an innovative instrument to elicit choices. SETTING: General Internal Medicine outpatient clinic at a university teaching hospital. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred five adults, 65 years of age and older, who had primary care physician visits between July and September 1995. MEASUREMENTS: Desire to personally select insurance benefits, insurance benefit choices, and the reasons for selection or rejection of benefits. RESULTS: Subjects of various educational and economic backgrounds were able to carry out the selection process with relative case, and four-fifths of respondents preferred to make their own choices about insured services. The most frequently selected services were hospitalization, outpatient care, prescription drugs, eye care, and home care, in descending order. Subjects selected 52 different combinations of services. Only 2% of respondents picked the current Medicare service package. The reasons given for selection varied by service; cost and current or anticipated need for a service were the most frequently cited forces driving the choices made. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that Medicare enrollees prefer some element of choice about their health insurance coverage. Their choices vary widely and differ from the current Medicare package.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
The cost of an average outpatient visit to a physician at a Veterans Administration hospital in 1976 was estimated from hospital records to have been $80.35 ($104.46 in 1979 dollars). When productivity was used to measure relative cost, cost per visit ranged from a low of $32.66 (1979: $42.46) for hypertension clinic to a high of $243.48 (1979; $316.52) for hematology clinic. The average patient was seen 12.6 times annually at a cost of $1012 (1979: $1315). The major cost category for a physician visit was salaries, with nonphysician salaries costing twice as much as physician salaries. The cost of medical equipment was minimal. The findings suggest that the outpatient bookkeeping system was inadequate for cost accounting, the cost per visit was expensive, there were an excessive number of visits, and problems in the institutional delivery system of ambulatory care lowered productivity of physicians.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
With the objective to know the perceived quality of the assistance by the customers of the outpatient facilities in a teaching hospital, the information gathered in 1,970 self-administered, volunteer, anonymous questionnaires was analyzed, being obtained from the 4,756 consultations done in the outpatients department during a one week period. Different aspects of the physician's visit are discussed, together with the attention received from the paramedic personnel and other viewpoints pertaining to the organization and conditions of the waiting area. There is a high level of satisfaction among the users of the outpatients department, more pronounced in the "medical" area, in relation with the physician's consultation as well as with the attention from paramedics or in the adherence to appointments. The results suggest that in those physicians' offices where the relationship of the patient with the unit is less frequent, users show more criticism in comparison with those offices where almost all patients consult because of chronic ailments. We underline the importance of this type of perceived quality studies within the quality control policies, as a complement of the analysis of technical quality.
Over the past few years Greece has undergone several endeavors, aimed at modernizing and improving the national health care services. A Health Care Reform Act seeking quality improvement and coordination of outpatient and hospital services at the Regional level, through the enhancement of primary care, has been recently approved. This paper reports a proposal for integrated health system in the primary care system in Greece with a major focus on equity, quality, and outcomes. The equity and quality framework of this proposal will possess the main components focusing on the provision of essential services, and clinical and organizational standards.
Over the past few years Greece has undergone several endeavors, aimed at modernizing and improving the national health care services. A Health Care Reform Act seeking quality improvement and coordination of outpatient and hospital services at the Regional level, through the enhancement of primary care, has been recently approved. This paper reports a proposal for integrated health system in the primary care system in Greece with a major focus on equity, quality, and outcomes. The equity and quality framework of this proposal will possess the main components focusing on the provision of essential services, clinical, and organizational standards.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.