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Drug usage review sample studies in long-term care facilities.

The usage of 10 drugs in five long-term care facilities was reviewed to evaluate the effectiveness of a five-step systematic method of drug usage review. Medical care evaluation sample studies are required under the Medicare and Medicaid programs, and drug usage review sample studies may satisfy this requirement. The five-step method involved selection of the health problem to be studied; development of criteria of care; measurement of specific performance data and comparison with the criteria; establishment of the audit committee evaluation process; and design and implementation of educational activities. In each facility, data were collected on abstract sheets designed to indicate when a patient's drug usage did not conform to criteria established by a committee of health professionals. Incidents of nonconformance were then examined. The largest number of exceptions to the criteria related to monitoring the effectiveness of drug therapy. Data by drug revealed higher nonconformance rates for digoxin, hydrochlorothiazide, methyldopa and thioridazine. A small number of exceptions was found in drug administration, indicating that the patients were receiving medications as ordered and that few errors were made in transcribing. This systematic approach to identifying drug usage patterns can be used by pharmacists to coordinate sample studies and to fulfill their consultant role in long-term facilities required by federal regulations.

Drug Therapy

A work sampling study of midlevel health professionals in a rural medical clinic.

A work sampling study was initiated to provide a comprehensive description of the tasks performed by midlevel health personnel in the rural component of an experimental medical care delivery system. The investigation determined the proportion of time spent on various activities by the staff members of a rural clinic which is linked to supervisory physicians in a distant urban medical center. Over 800 observations were recorded during ten randomly selected days in a two-month period on each of the three staff members. The family nurse practitioner spent one-third of her time in direct patient care activities with almost one-half of the day devoted to indirect patient care tasks. The laboratory aide allocated one-half of her day to providing direct patient services whereas the clerk-receptionist spent over 40 per cent of her day on patient records and billing. Work sampling results were considered within a comparative framework to qualitatively assess performance. The findings were coupled with proposed changes in administrative and medical policy to provide a quantitative basis for developing cost-reducing alternative staffing configurations.

Allied Health Personnel

Age and perceived effects of erotica-pornography: a national sample study.

In the spring of 1970, a national sample survey of 2486 adults (aged 20-80) was studied to ascertain U.S. public attitudes toward and experience with erotic materials. Twelve items measured whether or not those interviewed believed that looking at or reading sexual materials had certain effects on themselves or others. Initial description of the results revealed a considerable diversity of opinion. This report provides a multistage typology of those item responses, beginning with characterization of items as positive, neutral, or negative in effect. Striking age gradients were observed at each stage in the typology formation. At first glance, these results are hardly surprising, yet introduction of controls for level of education, gender, and reported previous levels of actual exposure to erotica did not appreciably change the age-graded response pattern. The last stage in the typology contained four levels and showed an attribute solely desirable and/or neutral effects to erotica. Those who expressed neutral and mixed (strongly positive and negative) views were somewhat older. The next age norms about explicit sexual materials took on a perception of no effects or a position of uncertainty. Finally, those who believed that pornography has largely or solely undesirable effects on its consumers were oldest. The replicability of the pattern suggests a specific order in the underlying process of change in values (historical and/or intraindividual).

Adult

The surgical work day in the British Isles: some observations from a small sample studied in depth.

The daily activities of nine surgeons in the British Isles, representing a variety of practice settings, were observed. British surgeons had a mean total workweek of 45.8 hours, of which 34.5 hours were expended in professional activities. American community surgeons, as reported in the literature, had an analogous professional workweek of 28.7 hours, and American prepaid group surgeons, 50.7 hours. The American community surgeons performed many fewer operations, but the American prepaid group surgeons had operative loads similar to those of the British, although with a much greater time expenditure. Superior organization of British operating rooms in "lists," the designation of certain operating days each week, a more rapid anesthesia induction and case turnover, all aided more rapid completion of a number of sequential surgical operations. Non-operative professional time expended per patient was less for the British group than any of the reported American groups.

General Surgery

Antisocial children in a summer camp environment: a time-sampling study.

A discussion is set forth regarding the possibly dysfunctional consequences of grouping antisocial children in homogeneous contexts for treatment. It is posited that antisocial children can profit from being placed for treatment in community based settings (for example, community centers, YMCAs, and neighborhood settlement houses) in which most of the other children are considered prosocial. In the present study 5 antisocial boys were placed in a residential summer camp consisting of 81 boys and 75 girls. Comparisons are made among the frequencies of prosocial, nonsocial, and antisocial behavior observed for the antisocial children placed in four groups, prosocial children in these groups, and the prosocial children in four other groups. These comparisons yield no significant differences among the antisocial and prosocial children's behavior. Findings are discussed in terms of their relevance for the helping professions.

Camping

Dialysis costs: results of a diverse sample study.

A study of dialysis costs in five major dialysis centers throughout the United States was conducted in 1973. When available, home, home training, limited care, satellite and in-hospital-full-care dialysis were included. The study's objective was to determine the cost per dialysis for each separate dialysis modality. All costs associated with the dialysis procedure were included. Using a uniform methodology, costs were collected on four care levels which vary significantly from each other in the use of direct labor. They are as follows: home, home care training, limited care and full care. Costs were also segregated into five expenditure categories: personnel, supplies, travel, equipment and other. They study was designed to show the range of costs in five "representative" centers throughout the country, but not to provide statistical "average" of dialysis costs. Cost per dialysis ranged from $33 to 66 for the home patient group, $100 to 116 for limited care, $144 to 172 for in-hospital and $146 to 259 for the home training units.

Costs and Cost Analysis

The epidemiology of hyperlipoproteinemia in a Rumanian general population sample. Study of 7,085 cases.

Using a two stages screening method the prevalence in the general population of hyperlipoproteinemias (HLP), separated in the five types proposed by Fredrickson, Levy and Lees, and adopted by WHO has been studied. The study included 7,085 subjects of both sexes, aged 25-65 years, representing 84,52 % of a population taken at random within a district of Bucarest. HLP was found in 1,013 cases, i.e. 14,29 % of the investigated population. 48.37 % were men and 51.63 % women. The prevalence of HLP was lowest in the first decace of age studied (25-35 years) and highest in the last two decades (45-65 years). Overweight was more frequently encountered in these patients (64.46 %) than in the total population (32.3 %). Of the 1,013 cases with HLP, 42.35 % (6.05 % of the total population) were of type IV, 27.05 % (3.86 % of the total population) of type II-b, 22.80 % (3.26 % of the total population) of type II-a, 4.74 % (0.67 % of the total population) of the type III and 3.06 % (0.43 % of the total population) of the type V. 22.70 % of the HLP patients were considered primary familial HLP, 66.54 % primary non-familial HLP and 10.76 % secondary HLP; IN 109 secondary HLP, the most frequently encountered disease was diabetes mellitus (42.20 %), followed by hypothyroidism (24.77 %), alcoholism (12.84 %), obstructive liver diseases (9.17 %), pancreatitis (5.50 %), nephrotic syndrome (2.75 %) and treatment with estrogens and steroids (2.75 %).

Adult