Context: There is a growing recognition of the need to measure and report hospital financial performance. However, there exists little comparative financial indicator data specifically for critical access hospitals (CAHs). CAHs differ from other hospitals on a number of dimensions that might affect appropriate indicators of performance, including…

Alopecia is a chronic disease of hair loss. The study focuses on psychological issues relating to the experience of alopecia. Previous research has considered psychological problems as secondary to the medical disorder. The first part consisted of spontaneous written accounts (N=162) of the experience of alopecia. The second part was an…

Despite advances in early detection and prevention of cervical cancer, women living in rural areas, and particularly in Appalachia, the rural South, the Texas-Mexico border, and the central valley of California, have had consistently higher rates of cervical cancer mortality than their counterparts in other areas during the past several decades.…

The aims of the present study were to examine health characteristics and healthcare utilization in relation to people with intellectual disability (ID) having psychiatric disorders in Taiwan. A cross-sectional study was employed; study subjects were recruited from the National Disability Registration Database. Taiwan, stratified by administrative…

Expansion of newborn screening (NBS) has been driven primarily by a combination of advances in technology and medical treatment, and the sustained advocacy efforts of consumers and voluntary health organizations. The longstanding leadership of the March of Dimes has been credited by many as a critical factor in the expansion and improvement of…

A clear consensus has emerged around the world concerning the desirability and even the urgency of basing health care delivery systems on evidence. Among behavioral health care providers such as psychologists, evidence-based practice (EBP) has been focused largely on interventions. Psychologists have long emphasized a scientifically based…

This commentary discusses 4 issues relevant to interpretation of A. S. Green, E. Rafaeli, N. Bolger, P. E. Shrout, and H. T. Reis's (2006) article: (a) Self-reported compliance in medical settings has generally been substantially higher than verified compliance, suggesting that this is not a rare phenomenon; (b) none of the studies reported in…

Unlike the airline industry, where pilots first learn to fly on simulators before navigating planes, physicians practice invasive procedures on real patients. To determine the need for the simulated training of invasive procedures prior to working on patients, we studied the views of physicians-in-training. Five hundred medical students,…

Objective: To determine if a psychiatry-primary medical care (PPMC) training track impacts comfort and behaviors related to addressing general medical issues after residency. Method: Thirty five psychiatry resident graduates completed mailed surveys; nine of them had completed the PPMC track. Results: Compared to non-PPMC participants, PPMC…

Colleges and universities throughout the country are attempting to grapple with large numbers of highly self-destructive students. These students pose not only a danger to themselves but to their peers and the college staff who are responsible for their care and welfare. Ordinarily, in the course of dealing with such students a myriad of rather…

The interests of the student athlete are best served when their medical care is managed by professionals who understand their unique needs. Most often, that is under the umbrella of the student health service, regardless of who performs direct clinical care. Unfortunately, in practice, this is too often the exception rather than the rule. A close…

Trustees and administrators today confront one of two problems with post-retirement medical care. First, if institutions provide no support for their retirees' medical care, they implicitly offer a powerful incentive for senior faculty to stay on. The compensation and opportunity costs of this effect are obviously very high. But, second, if they…

This article describes two models for thinking about the purposes of health education--a medical model and an education model--and traces how concerns about the validity of research have driven preference for the medical model. In the medical model, the purpose of health education is to develop effective interventions that will prevent people from…

Objective: Data on the current costs of medical services for children with autism spectrum disorders are lacking. Our purpose for this study was to compare health care utilization and costs of children with and without autism spectrum disorders in the same health plan. Patients and Methods: Participants included all 2- to 18-year-old children with…

The aim of the current article is to review the peer-reviewed research literature on cues and concerns published between 1975 and 2006. To be included, articles had to report observational studies based on patient-physician consultations and report findings on patient expressions of cues and/or concerns. Quantitative and qualitative studies from…