How do classroom-turnover times depend on lecture-hall size?

Academic spaces in colleges and universities span classrooms for 10 students to lecture halls that hold over 600 people. During the break between consecutive classes, students from the first class must leave and the new class must find their desks, regardless of whether the room holds 10 or 600 people. Here we address the question of how the size of large lecture halls affects classroom-turnover times, focusing on non-emergency settings. By adapting the established social-force model, we treat students as individuals who interact and move through classrooms to reach their destinations. We find that social interactions and the separation time between consecutive classes strongly influence how long it takes entering students to reach their desks, and that these effects are more pronounced in larger lecture halls. While the median time that individual students must travel increases with decreased separation time, we find that shorter separation times lead to shorter classroom-turnover times overall. This suggests that the effects of scheduling gaps and lecture-hall size on classroom dynamics depends on the perspective-individual student or whole class-that one chooses to take.

National Health Care Spending In 2021: Decline In Federal Spending Outweighs Greater Use Of Health Care.

Health care spending in the US grew 2.7 percent to reach $4.3 trillion in 2021, a much slower rate than the increase of 10.3 percent seen in 2020. The slower rate of growth in 2021 was driven by a 3.5 percent decline in federal government expenditures for health care after a spike in 2020 that occurred largely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Alongside this decline, the use of medical goods and services increased in 2021. The share of the economy accounted for by the health sector fell from 19.7 percent in 2020 to 18.3 percent in 2021, but it was still higher than the 17.6 percent share in 2019. In 2021 the number of uninsured people declined for the second consecutive year as Medicaid enrollment increased.

The significant impact of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on in-hospital mortality of elderly patients with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury: A retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is one of the main causes of death and disability among the elderly patient population. This study aimed to assess the predictors of in-hospital mortality of elderly patients with moderate to severe TBI who presented during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. METHODS: In this retrospective analytical study, all elderly patients with moderate to severe TBI who were referred to our center between March 2nd, 2020 to August 1st, 2020 were investigated and compared against the TBI patients receiving treatment during the same time period within the year 2019. Patients were followed until discharge from the hospital or death. The demographic, clinical, radiological, and laboratory test data were evaluated. Data were analyzed using SPSS-21 software. FINDINGS: In this study, 359 elderly patients were evaluated (n = 162, Post-COVID-19). Fifty-four patients of the cohort had COVID-19 disease with a mortality rate was 33.3%. The patients with COVID-19 were 5.45 times more likely to expire before discharge (P < 0.001) than the TBI patients who were not COVID-19 positive. Other variables such as hypotension (OR, 4.57P < 0.001), hyperglycemia (OR, 2.39, P = 0.002), and use of anticoagulant drugs (OR, 2.41P = 0.001) were also associated with in-hospital death.According to the binary logistic regression analysis Age (OR, 1.72; 95% CI: 1.26-2.18; P = 0.033), Coronavirus infection (OR, 2.21; 95% CI: 1.83-2.92; P = 0.011) and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) (OR, 3.11; 95% CI: 2.12-4.53; P < 0.001) were independent risk factors correlated with increased risk of in-hospital mortality of elderly patients with moderate to severe TBI. CONCLUSION: Our results showed that Coronavirus infection could increase the risk of in-hospital mortality of elderly patients with moderate to severe TBI significantly.

National Health Care Spending In 2018: Growth Driven By Accelerations In Medicare And Private Insurance Spending.

US health care spending increased 4.6 percent to reach $3.6 trillion in 2018, a faster growth rate than the rate of 4.2 percent in 2017 but the same rate as in 2016. The share of the economy devoted to health care spending declined to 17.7 percent in 2018, compared to 17.9 percent in 2017. The 0.4-percentage-point acceleration in overall growth in 2018 was driven by faster growth in both private health insurance and Medicare, which were influenced by the reinstatement of the health insurance tax. For personal health care spending (which accounted for 84 percent of national health care spending), growth in 2018 remained unchanged from 2017 at 4.1 percent. The total number of uninsured people increased by 1.0 million for the second year in a row, to reach 30.7 million in 2018.

Health Spending By State 1991-2014: Measuring Per Capita Spending By Payers And Programs.

As the US health sector evolves and changes, it is informative to estimate and analyze health spending trends at the state level. These estimates, which provide information about consumption of health care by residents of a state, serve as a baseline for state and national-level policy discussions. This study examines per capita health spending by state of residence and per enrollee spending for the three largest payers (Medicare, Medicaid, and private health insurance) through 2014. Moreover, it discusses in detail the impacts of the Affordable Care Act implementation and the most recent economic recession and recovery on health spending at the state level. According to this analysis, these factors affected overall annual growth in state health spending and the payers and programs that paid for that care. They did not, however, substantially change state rankings based on per capita spending levels over the period.

National Health Spending In 2014: Faster Growth Driven By Coverage Expansion And Prescription Drug Spending.

US health care spending increased 5.3 percent to $3.0 trillion in 2014. On a per capita basis, health spending was $9,523 in 2014, an increase of 4.5 percent from 2013. The share of gross domestic product devoted to health care spending was 17.5 percent, up from 17.3 percent in 2013. The faster growth in 2014 that followed five consecutive years of historically low growth was primarily due to the major coverage expansions under the Affordable Care Act, particularly for Medicaid and private health insurance, which contributed to an increase in the insured share of the population. Additionally, the introduction of new hepatitis C drugs contributed to rapid growth in retail prescription drug expenditures, which increased by 12.2 percent in 2014. Spending by the federal government grew at a faster rate in 2014 than spending by other sponsors of health care, leading to a 2-percentage-point increase in its share of total health care spending between 2013 and 2014.

Exploring the experiences of violence among individuals who are homeless using a consumer-led approach.

Homelessness increases vulnerability to violence victimization; however, the precise factors associated with victimization and injury are not clearly understood. Thus, this study explores the prevalence of and characteristics associated with violence victimization among homeless individuals by surveying approximately 500 individuals experiencing homelessness in 5 cities across the United States. Our findings reveal that nearly one-half of our sample reported experiencing violence and that prolonged duration of homelessness (greater than 2 years) and being older increased the risk of experiencing a violent attack. In addition, increased length of homelessness and female gender predicted experiencing rape. Women were also significantly more likely to know one's perpetrator and experience continued suffering after a violent attack. We conclude that certain subpopulations within the homeless population are at an increased risk for victimization and, subsequently, require added protective services; implications for health care and policy recommendations are also discussed.

National health spending in 2011: overall growth remains low, but some payers and services show signs of acceleration.

In 2011 US health care spending grew 3.9 percent to reach $2.7 trillion, marking the third consecutive year of relatively slow growth. Growth in national health spending closely tracked growth in nominal gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and 2011, and health spending as a share of GDP remained stable from 2009 through 2011, at 17.9 percent. Even as growth in spending at the national level has remained stable, personal health care spending growth accelerated in 2011 (from 3.7 percent to 4.1 percent), in part because of faster growth in spending for prescription drugs and physician and clinical services. There were also divergent trends in spending growth in 2011 depending on the payment source: Medicaid spending growth slowed, while growth in Medicare, private health insurance, and out-of-pocket spending accelerated. Overall, there was relatively slow growth in incomes, jobs, and GDP in 2011, which raises questions about whether US health care spending will rebound over the next few years as it typically has after past economic downturns.

Health spending by state of residence, 1991-2009.

OBJECTIVE: Provide a detailed discussion of baseline health spending by state of residence (per capita personal health care spending, per enrollee Medicare spending, and per enrollee Medicaid spending) in 2009, over the last decade (1998-2009), as well as the differential regional and state impacts of the recent recession. DATA SOURCE: State Health Expenditures by State of Residence for 1991-2009, produced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of the Actuary. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In 2009, the 10 states where per capita spending was highest ranged from 13 to 36 percent higher than the national average, and the 10 states where per capita spending was lowest ranged from 8 to 26 percent below the national average. States with the highest per capita spending tended to have older populations and the highest per capita incomes; states with the lowest per capita spending tended to have younger populations, lower per capita incomes, and higher rates of uninsured. Over the last decade, the New England and Mideast regions exhibited the highest per capita personal health care spending, while states in the Southwest and Rocky Mountain regions had the lowest per capita spending. Variation in per enrollee Medicaid spending, however, has consistently been greater than that of total per capita personal health care spending or per enrollee Medicare spending from 1998-2009. The Great Lakes, New England, and Far West regions experienced the largest slowdown in per person health spending growth during the recent recession, largely as a result of higher unemployment rates.