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Care coordination programmes are an important aspect of HIV management whose success depends largely on HIV primary care provider (PCP) and case manager collaboration. Factors influencing collaboration among HIV PCPs and case managers remain to be studied. The study objective was to test an existing theoretical model of interprofessional collaborative practice and determine which factors play the most important role in facilitating collaboration. A self-administered, anonymous mail survey was sent to HIV PCPs and case managers in New York City. An adapted survey instrument elicited information on demographic, contextual, and perceived social exchange (trustworthiness, role specification, and relationship initiation) characteristics. The dependent variable, perceived interprofessional practice, was constructed from a validated scale. A sequential block wise regression model specifying variable entry order examined the relative importance of each group of factors and of individual variables. The analysis showed that social exchange factors were the dominant drivers of collaboration. Relationship initiation was the most important predictor of interprofessional collaboration. Additional influential factors included organisational leadership support of collaboration, practice settings, and frequency of interprofessional meetings. Addressing factors influencing collaboration among providers will help public health programmes optimally design their structural, hiring, and training strategies to foster effective social exchanges and promote collaborative working relationships.

Background. Although approximately 82 percent of the US population was covered by some form of law that restricted smoking in public establishments as of 2014, most research examining the relationship between smoke-free laws and health has been focused at the state level.Purpose. To examine the effect of county workplace smoke-free laws over and above the effect of other (restaurant or bar) smoke-free laws on adult asthma.Methods. The study estimated the effect of rates of adult asthma discharges before and after the implementation of county nonhospitality workplace smoke-free laws and county restaurant and bar smoke-free laws. Data were from 2002 to 2009, and all analyses were performed in 2011 through 2013.Results. A statistically significant relationship (−5.43,p<.05) was found between county restaurant or bar smoke-free laws and reductions in working age adult asthma discharges. There was no statistically significant effect of nonhospitality workplace smoke-free laws over and above the effect of county restaurant or bar laws.Conclusions. This study suggests that further gains in preventable asthma-related hospitalizations in the US are more likely to be made by focusing on smoke-free laws in bars or restaurants rather than in nonhospitality workplaces.

Object This study analyses inappropriate use of emergency department (ED) services among type 2 diabetics under an evidence-based management programme. Methods Using 1999-2006 databases of Louisiana Health Care Services Division (HCSD) eight public hospitals ED visits among the uninsured and other patients in Louisiana, we termed urgent ED visits appropriate and less-urgent visits inappropriate. Eliminating weekend ED visits, 17 458 urgent and 22 395 less-urgent visits by 8596 patients were analysed, using generalized estimating equation methods. Results Caucasians were 0.82 times (95% CI: 0.751–0.889) less likely to use the ED inappropriately compared with African Americans. Patients with commercial insurance, Medicaid and Medicare used the ED more inappropriately than uninsured, with odds ratios of 1.28, 1.32 and 1.28, respectively. Patients hospitalized the prior year were 0.84 times (95% CI: 1.08–1.31) less likely for inappropriate. Patients in larger hospitals used the ED more inappropriately, with an odds ratio of 1.44 (95% CI: 1.32–1.56). Conclusions The study suggests that inappropriate use of the ED among diabetic patients in an evidence-based management programme is more likely to occur among African American, patients with insurance coverage and those seeking care in larger hospitals. Reinforcing the regular use of clinic services for diabetes management, providing clinic access in off-hours, and engaging the health plans in providing incentives for more appropriate use of the ED might reduce inappropriate ED visits. Notably, uninsured patients with diabetes from HCSD were more efficient users of the ED.

Objective Determine the degree of congruence between several measures of adverse events. Design Cross-sectional study to assess frequency and type of adverse events identified using a variety of methods. Setting Mayo Clinic Rochester hospitals. Participants All inpatients discharged in 2005 ( n = 60 599). Interventions Adverse events were identified through multiple methods: (i) Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-defined patient safety indicators (PSIs) using ICD-9 diagnosis codes from administrative discharge abstracts, (ii) provider-reported events, and (iii) Institute for Healthcare Improvement Global Trigger Tool with physician confirmation. PSIs were adjusted to exclude patient conditions present at admission. Main outcome measure Agreement of identification between methods. Results About 4% (2401) of hospital discharges had an adverse event identified by at least one method. Around 38% (922) of identified events were provider-reported events. Nearly 43% of provider-reported adverse events were skin integrity events, 23% medication events, 21% falls, 1.8% equipment events and 37% miscellaneous events. Patients with adverse events identified by one method were not usually identified using another method. Only 97 (6.2%) of hospitalizations with a PSI also had a provider-reported event and only 10.5% of provider-reported events had a PSI. Conclusions Different detection methods identified different adverse events. Findings are consistent with studies that recommend combining approaches to measure patient safety for internal quality improvement. Potential reported adverse event inconsistencies, low association with documented harm and reporting differences across organizations, however, raise concerns about using these patient safety measures for public reporting and organizational performance comparison.

Explore effects of comorbidity and prior health care utilization on choice of employee health plans with different levels of cost sharing.Mayo Clinic employees in Rochester, Minnesota (MCR) under age 65 in January 2004; N = 20,379.Assessment of a natural experiment where self-funded medical care benefit options were changed to contain costs within a large medical group practice. Before the change, most employees were enrolled in a plan with first dollar coverage, while 18% had a plan with copays and deductibles. In 2004, 3 existing plans were replaced by 2 new options, one with lower premiums and higher out-of-pocket costs and the other with higher premiums, a lower coinsurance rate, and lower out-of-pocket maximums.Data on employees were merged across insurance claims, medical records, eligibility files, and employment files for 2003 and 2004.As the number of chronic comorbidities among family members increased, the probability of choosing high-premium option also increased. Seventy-two percent of employees with at least 1 family member with comorbidity chose the high-cost option versus 54.7% of employees with no comorbidities. High-premium and low-premium plans seem to subdivide population into discrete risk categories, which may adversely affect the future stability of the insurance plan options.Various factors affect decision making of employees regarding the choice of plan with different levels of cost-sharing. In a natural experiment setting where all options were redesigned, the health status of employees and their dependents played a very significant role in plan choice.

The objective was to investigate the effect of admission health status on hospital adverse events and added costs. Secondary data were from merged administrative and clinical sources for Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota hospital discharges in 2005 (N = 60,599). This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of the effect of demographics, diagnosis group, comorbidity, and admission illness severity on adverse events, incremental costs, and length of stay (LOS) using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Patient Safety Indicators and provider-reported events with harm. Estimates are derived from generalized linear models. Admission severity increased the likelihood of all types of adverse events (7.2% per unit acute physiology score for any event); 7 specific comorbidities were associated with increased events and 2 with decreased events. High admission severity increased incremental costs and LOS. Selected comorbidities increased incremental LOS but had no significant effect on incremental costs. Adverse event reporting should incorporate comorbidity and admission severity. Reimbursement incentives to improve patient safety should consider adjustment for admission health status.

To examine the predictors of duloxetine monotherapy versus other antidepressants among patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).Patients initiating duloxetine or other antidepressants between October 1, 2005 and October 1, 2007 were extracted from the Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN)16 data warehouse. All patients included had at least one MDD diagnosis prior to the initiation of duloxetine or other antidepressants. Patients with prior diabetes, schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder diagnosis were excluded. Logistic regression was used to identify predictors of duloxetine initiation versus other antidepressants.Among 448 duloxetine and 11,629 non-duloxetine patients identified, more duloxetine-treated patients had pre-index opioid use (62.72% vs. 22.03%), substance abuse (36.38% vs. 27.72%), or reported pain (60.94% vs. 46.29%) than non-duloxetine treated patients (all p-values0.001). Prior users of long-acting (odds ratio [OR] = 8.98, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.95, 11.60) and short-acting (OR = 3.32, 95% CI: 2.60, 4.23) opioids were more likely to initiate duloxetine than those not. Patients who experienced moderate or severe pain or substance abuse were also more likely to initiate duloxetine (OR = 1.43, 95% CI: 1.07, 1.90; 1.50, 95% CI: 1.16, 1.92; 1.41, 95% CI: 1.14, 1.75; respectively). Other significant predictors included being female, white, having non-VHA insurance, prior hospitalization, emergency room visits, dyslipidemia and hypertension (all p-values0.05).It is a retrospective analysis among VHA patients of a single VISN.Among the VHA patients with MDD, prior opioid use was the strongest predictor of duloxetine initiation, followed by moderate-to-severe pain and substance abuse diagnosis.

Summary Objectives In order to make tuberculosis (TB) treatment more effective and to lower the default rate of the disease, the Bureau of National Health Insurance (BNHI) in Taiwan implemented the "pay-for-performance on Tuberculosis" program (P4P on TB) in 2004. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the P4P system in terms of default rate. Methods This is a retrospective study. National Health Insurance Research Datasets in Taiwan from 2002 to 2005 has been used for the study. The study compared the differences of TB default rate before and after the implementation of P4P program, between participating and non-participating hospitals, and between P4P hospitals with and without case managers. Furthermore, logistic regression analysis was conducted to explore the related factors influencing TB patients default treatment after TB detected. Results The treatment default rate after "P4P on TB" was 11.37% compared with the 15.56% before "P4P on TB" implementation. The treatment default rate in P4P hospitals was 10.67% compared to 12.7% in non-P4P hospitals. In addition, the default rate was 10.4% in hospitals with case managers compared with 12.68% in hospitals without case managers. Conclusions The results of the study showed that "P4P on TB" program improved the treatment default rate for TB patients. In addition, case managers improved the treatment outcome in controlling patients' default rate.

Background The prevalence of both unintended pregnancy and psychiatric disorders in pregnancy is high. Each is associated with compromised birth outcomes and challenges in child-rearing. This study examines the relationship between mental illness and unintended pregnancy in seeking to improve the care provided to women and our ability to minimize the number of children born unwanted or ill-cared for. Methods The sample consisted of 744 pregnant Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) participants with a stratified enrollment design by residence and representative by race for each WIC county. Analysis consisted of post-stratification by developmental age group with logistic regression models estimating odds of unintended pregnancy among women with and without a psychiatric disorder. Covariates included race, education, and marital status. Findings Almost one third (30.9%) had at least one psychiatric disorder with over two thirds (67.3%) reporting their pregnancy as unintended. No grouped psychiatric disorder was associated with unintended pregnancy with all ages combined. However, adolescents (ages 15–19) with a substance disorder were less likely to have an unintended pregnancy (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 0.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.1–0.7) than women without a substance disorder and emerging adult women (ages 20–23) with an anxiety disorder were less likely to have an unintended pregnancy (aOR, 0.4; 95% CI, 0.2–1.0) compared with those without the targeted disorder. Conclusion The prevalence of unintended pregnancy is not associated with having a psychiatric disorder, although substance use disorders and anxiety disorders were associated with a decreased likelihood for an unintended pregnancy in a specific age group. Importantly, targeted efforts are needed to identify and counsel women with mental illness about pregnancy planning.

Context: Many attempts to identify hospital complications rely on secondary diagnoses from billing data. To be meaningful, diagnosis codes must distinguish between diagnoses after admission and those existing before admission. Objective: To assess the influence of diagnoses at admission on patient safety, comorbidity, severity measures, and case mix groupings for Medicare reimbursement. Design: Cross-sectional association of various diagnosis-based clinical and performance measures with and without diagnosis present on admission. Setting: Hospital discharges from Mayo Clinic Rochester hospitals in 2005 (N = 60,599). Patients: All hospital inpatients including surgical, medical, pediatric, maternity, psychiatric, and rehabilitation patients. About 33% of patients traveled more than 120 miles for care. Main Outcome Measures: Hospital patient safety indicators, comorbidity, severity, and case mix measures with and without diagnoses present at admission. Results: Over 90% of all diagnoses were present at admission whereas 27.1% of all inpatients had a secondary diagnosis coded in-hospital. About one-third of discharges with a safety indicator were flagged because of a diagnosis already present at admission, more likely among referral patients. In contrast, 87% of postoperative hemorrhage, 22% of postoperative hip fractures, and 54% of foreign bodies left in wounds were coded as in-hospital conditions. Severity changes during hospitalization were observed in less than 8% of discharges. Slightly over 3% of discharges were assigned to higher weight diagnosis-related groups based on an in-hospital complication. Conclusions: In general, many patient safety indicators do not reliably identify adverse hospital events, especially when applied to academic referral centers. Except as noted, conditions recorded after admission have minimal impact on comorbidity and severity measures or on Medicare reimbursement.

Objectives. We examined the association between psychiatric disorders and tobacco use during pregnancy. Methods. Data were derived from a population-based cohort of 744 pregnant African American and White low-income women living in urban and rural areas. The Diagnostic Interview Schedule was used to assess women for 20 different psychiatric disorders. Results. In comparison with nonusers, persistent tobacco users (women who had used tobacco after confirmation of their pregnancy) and nonpersistent users (women who had used tobacco but not after pregnancy confirmation) were 2.5 and 2 times as likely to have a psychiatric disorder. Twenty-five percent of persistent users had at least 1 of the following diagnoses: generalized anxiety disorder, bipolar I disorder, oppositional disorder, drug abuse or dependence, and attention deficit–hyperactivity disorder. Conclusions. In this cohort study, 5 diagnoses were more prevalent among persistent tobacco users than among nonusers, suggesting that several psychiatric disorders contribute to difficulty discontinuing tobacco use during pregnancy. Smoking cessation efforts focusing on pregnant women may need to address co-occurring psychiatric disorders if they are to be successful.

To estimate the prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder and its treatment in economically disadvantaged pregnant women.The sample included 744 pregnant Medicaid-eligible women from Women, Infants and Children Supplemental Nutrition Program sites in 5 counties in rural Missouri and the city of St. Louis. Race (black and white) was proportional to clients seen at each site. Women were assessed by using standardized measures of posttraumatic stress disorder, 18 other psychiatric disorders, environmental stressors, and pregnancy characteristics. Logistic regression identified risk factors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder.Posttraumatic stress disorder prevalence was 7.7% (n = 57/744). Comorbid disorders were common. Women with posttraumatic stress disorder were 5 times more likely to have a major depressive episode (odds ratio 5.17; 95% confidence interval 2.61, 10.26) and more than 3 times as likely to have generalized anxiety disorder (odds ratio 3.25; 95% confidence interval 1.22, 8.62). Besides these comorbid disorders, risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder included a history of maternal separation for 6 months and multiple traumatic events. Although most women with posttraumatic stress disorder reported moderate impairment in their daily lives, only 7 of the 57 women with this disorder reported speaking with any health professional about it in the last 12 months.The prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in pregnancy and low treatment rates suggest that screening for this disorder should be considered in clinical practice.II-2

Background This study analyzed the likelihood of less-urgent emergency department (ED) visits among type 2 diabetic patients receiving care under a diabetes disease management (DM) program offered by the Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division (LSU HCSD). Methods All ED and outpatient clinic visits made by 6,412 type 2 diabetic patients from 1999 to 2006 were extracted from the LSU HCSD Disease Management (DM) Evaluation Database. Patient ED visits were classified as either urgent or less-urgent, and the likelihood of a less-urgent ED visit was compared with outpatient clinic visits using the Generalized Estimating Equation methodology for binary response to time-dependent variables. Results Patients who adhered to regular clinic visit schedules dictated by the DM program were less likely to use the ED for less urgent care with odds ratio of 0.1585. Insured patients had 1.13 to 1.70 greater odds of a less-urgent ED visit than those who were uninsured. Patients with better-managed glycated hemoglobin (A1c or HbA1c) levels were 82 times less likely to use less-urgent ED visits. Furthermore, being older, Caucasian, or a longer participant in the DM program had a modestly lower likelihood of less-urgent ED visits. The patient's Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI), gender, prior hospitalization, and the admitting facility showed no effect. Conclusion Patients adhering to the DM visit guidelines were less likely to use the ED for less-urgent problems. Maintaining normal A1c levels for their diabetes also has the positive impact to reduce less-urgent ED usages. It suggests that successful DM programs may reduce inappropriate ED use. In contrast to expectations, uninsured patients were less likely to use the ED for less-urgent care. Patients in the DM program with Medicaid coverage were 1.3 times more likely to seek care in the ED for non-emergencies while commercially insured patients were nearly 1.7 times more likely to do so. Further research to understand inappropriate ED use among insured patients is needed. We suggest providing visit reminders, a call centre, or case managers to reduce the likelihood of less-urgent ED visit use among DM patients. By reducing the likelihood of unnecessary ED visits, successful DM programs can improve patient care.

The effects of chronic pretreatment with amiodarone on ischemic ventricular arrhythmias were evaluated in fully conscious instrumented dogs. In control dogs (n = 14) with large myocardial infarcts, early (first 30 min) ventricular arrhythmias occurred in a bimodal distribution with peaks at 3-5 min and at 12-25 min, with only the former associated with epicardial conduction delay. Ventricular fibrillation occurred equally frequently during each peak of early ventricular arrhythmias. Amiodarone (30 mg/kg daily) for 3-4 weeks had no significant effect (n = 11) on anatomic infarct size (28 +/- 6 vs. 30 +/- 5% of left ventricular weight) nor on collateral blood flow in the center of the infarct (19 +/- 11 vs. 15 +/- 7 ml/min/100 g of tissue) or on the ratio of endocardial/epicardial perfusion (0.23 +/- 0.19 vs. 0.28 +/- 19). Despite significant lengthening of peak epicardial conduction delay (191 +/- 20 to 239 +/- 81 ms, p less than 0.05), the frequency of early ventricular arrhythmias, especially during the second peak of ectopic activity, were markedly attenuated by amiodarone pretreatment, with the extrasystole-free intervals often being as long as 6 h. The incidence of ventricular fibrillation was 9% in the treated animals compared with 29% in the controls. In the control animals, arrhythmias always supervened when epicardial fractionation was significant, and no ectopy-free interval was present in the first 6 h following coronary occlusion. The data indicate that chronic amiodarone pretreatment exerts a beneficial effect on the frequency and severity of such ventricular tachyarrhythmias, with reduction in the incidence of ventricular fibrillation and ectopic activity in the early phases following coronary occlusion.