ABSTRACT
Medicare claims databases have several advantages for use in constructing episodes of care for outcomes research. They are population-based, relatively inexpensive to obtain, include large numbers of cases, and can be used for long-term follow-up. However, the sheer size of these claims databases, along with their primarily administrative (as opposed to clinical) nature, requires that researchers take special care in using them. The 10 PORTs using Medicare claims provided information on their approach to several key issues in working with these data, including: 1) identifying the index cases or patient cohorts to be studied; 2) defining the length of the episode; and 3) measuring outcomes. This paper reports the experience and knowledge gained by these PORTs in using these claims to create and analyze episodes of care.
Subject(s)
Health Services Research/methods , Insurance Claim Reporting , Medicare Part A/statistics & numerical data , Medicare Part B/statistics & numerical data , Outcome Assessment, Health Care , Databases, Factual , Episode of Care , Humans , Outcome Assessment, Health Care/statistics & numerical data , United StatesABSTRACT
This study examined the effects of ethanol on photic evoked potentials recorded from the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) and midbrain reticular formation (MRF) of chronically implanted albino rats. Animals were given intraperitoneal injections of saline, or of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 or 2.5 g ethanol/kg body weight on separate days. Evoked potentials were recorded at 5, 20, 40 and 60 min following injection. An early positive component recorded from each structure was depressed in amplitude by only the 2.5 g/kg alcohol dose, while the succeeding negative component was depressed by both the 1.5 and 2.5 g/kg doses. Latencies of both early components in each structure were increased by the 1.5 and 2.5 g/kg alcohol doses. Alcohol doses of 1.0-2.5 g/kg depressed the amplitude of a later positive component in the LGN (latency of 78 msec), but latency was not altered. In contrast, a late positive component in the MRF (latency of 150 msec) was both decreased in amplitude and increased in latency by only the 2.5 g/kg dose. These results on subcortical structures are discussed in relation to alcohol's effects on cortical evoked potentials.
