It was 2:35 am on a Saturday morning. Wiki Lim, process specialist from the Process Innovation Centre (PIC) of Hippi Care Hospital (HCH), desperately doodling on her notepad for ideas to improve service delivery at HCH's Emergency Department (ED). HCH has committed to the public that its ED would meet the service quality criterion of serving 90%…

Background: University health and fitness faculty members are continually striving to enhance the health knowledge of their students. Purpose: The purpose of this case study was to survey student reflections of a social media experience. Methods: Students were placed into one of two groups: Learners (N = 92) or Pre-Service Health and Fitness…

Describes a course designed to give students the theoretical and practical knowledge to understand the factors influencing the provision of quality nursing care; to use standards to evaluate nursing care; and to make planning changes to improvement. (Author)

Data are reported suggesting that a change in practice patterns did occur subsequent to a continuing medical education program. Twenty-eight physicians took a course in pulmonary artery pressure monitoring and followup surveys indicate its objectives were met. (LBH)

Considers how communication audits are typically presented as one-shot events, whose impact is not measured. Employs a follow-up audit to track the effects of an initial audit upon a major health care organization. Illustrates how the audit can play a useful role in an organization's communication strategy. (SG)

Measured students' attitudes toward a university's student health services (SHS) and identified factors related to their attitudes. Students' attitudes had significant correlation with (1) perceived medical care cost, (2) amount of health information/education received during medical encounters (3) time spent in the waiting room of the SHS (4) sex…

Nursing faculty, students, and community agency staff collaborated in demonstration projects that provided clinical experiences for students. They were trained in outcomes measurement in order to determine the effects of projects on the health of community clients. (Contains 17 references.) (SK)

Examines the relationship among four dimensions of patient satisfaction with physician care and nonverbal immediacy. Finds a significant positive correlation between nonverbal immediacy and overall patient satisfaction, with the strongest correlation to the attention/respect factor. (SR)

Evidence of biasing in judgments made by physicians was examined via individual interviews and written questionnaires from 38 university surgeons. Each surgeon estimated six quantities: his own number of major procedures during the past year, that of his specialty, and that of the entire service, as well as similar estimates for in-hospital…

A study in a medical center investigated the feasibility of primary care practices combining internal medicine and pediatrics residencies. Equally divided among children and adults, the patients had sought specialists and were highly satisfied. The physicians had appeal particularly to young upper-middle class patients. (Author/MSE)

Currently, the extent of palliative care instruction varies considerably across and within the three major phases of the physician education and training process. This analysis of current educational efforts in palliative care is based on information obtained from a survey conducted of all United States medical schools, surveys conducted on United…

The author contends that the professional standards review organization (PSRO), a national effort to assure high quality medical care, offers a challenge and an opportunity to the academic medical center. He discusses potential impact on role definition, criteria development, continuing medical education, curriculum evaluation, and attitudinal and…

Reports a 4-year experience in teaching evaluation of care at a 3-year medical school. Topics are introduction of patient care evaluation, impact of professional standards review organization (PSRO) legislation on program design, results (evaluation of quality assurance program), and future teaching of quality-cost evaluation. (JT)

A study investigated patient attitudes toward different disease control measures taken in dental school clinics (n=272 patients) and private practices (n=107 patients). Variables examined included sex, age, educational background, and knowledge of infectious diseases. Patients tended to accept the control measures being used in each context. (MSE)

A study was conducted of the internalization of the nursing process, based on the assumption that use of nursing-process terminology (to describe an interaction between a health-care provider and a client) might indicate internalization of the process. Six subjects (three college seniors and three registered nurses who had completed a…