Practice Management

It is time to focus on the linkage to community for preventive care, case-managed care, and follow-up on referrals and resources. As health care reform continues to inch closer every day, schools have to work smarter, not harder, to make a difference in the lives of every child in each and every classroom. Together we can make a difference. I close with this quote from Edward Schor (2007), author of EPSDT and School Readiness: Well-child care seeks to optimize children's health and development, preparing them for school and life beyond. The child health component of Medicaid, EPSDT, was designed with a similar objective, which is reflected in the EPSDT program's comprehensive benefit package, its preventive standard of care, and its case management functions. Given the vulnerability of young children from low-income families to poor health, poor educational attainment, and low-income lifelong productivity or social dependence, comprehensive well-child care represents a good investment

For better or for worse, the practice of pathology has evolved rapidly in the last decade, particularly the last several years. The dominance of certain national and regional pathology providers and the in-sourcing of pathology services as a revenue stream by nonpathology specialists have transformed pathology services into a commodity in many market, rather than a professional medical service. Despite significant health care reform and a myriad of compliance laws and regulations, it is unlikely that pathology practice will return to "the good old days." As a result, it is important for pathologists to become familiar with the trends in their specialty and have familiarity with the legal issues presented by these trends.

Several authors have stressed the fact that many policy reforms fail because of poor formulation or implementation. On the other hand, the health financing literature provides little guidance to policy makers in low-income countries on how to implement a health care financing reform in ways that enhance its chance of achieving policy objectives, even less so for a user fee removal reform. This paper presents the framework used for a multi-country review of the policy process of removing user fees in six sub-Saharan African countries. The review aimed at developing operational guidance for health managers involved in user fee removal reform. Drawing broadly on Walt and Gilson's 'health policy analysis triangle' (context-actor-process-content), we focused particularly on understanding the process of planning and implementing the reform led by central-level policy actors. Our core analytic strategy was the verification of a list of 'good practice hypotheses' that might be expected in a

Recent revisions of physical therapy codes of ethics have included a new emphasis concerning health inequities and social injustice. This emphasis reflects the growing evidence regarding the importance of social determinants of health, epidemiological trends for health service delivery, and the enhanced participation of physical therapists in shaping health care reform in a number of international contexts. This perspective article suggests that there is a "disconnect" between the societal obligations and aspirations expressed in the revised codes and the individualist ethical frameworks that predominantly underpin them. Primary health care is an approach to health care arising from an understanding of the nexus between health and social disadvantage that considers the health needs of patients as expressive of the health needs of the communities of which they are members. It is proposed that re-thinking ethical frameworks expressed in codes of ethics can both inform and underpin

The deinstitutionalisation reform in Spain started after 1980 with the aim of reducing the need for hospitalisation, length of stay and the number of psychiatric hospital beds, as well as fostering psychiatric patient's involvement in the community. The aim of this study was to review how this reform process has affected the management of schizophrenic patients from 1980 to 2004.|Longitudinal (1980-2004) study describing variables related to hospital morbidity in schizophrenia patients.|Hospital admission rate has gradually increased from 1980 to 2004 from 3.71 admissions per 10,000 inhabitants to 5.89, respectively. Considering the type of admission, emergency or elective, whilst the latter has slightly decreased from 2.24 in 1980 to 1.72 in 2004, the first has almost tripled from 1.47 to 4.17. The point-prevalence of schizophrenic patients receiving inpatient treatment each year has decreased 78% in this period. Length of stay, in days per admission episode, has also decreased from