Effects of functional performance and national health insurance cost on length of hospitalization for postacute care in stroke: a retrospective observational study.

BACKGROUND: The postacute care for cerebrovascular disease (PAC-CVD) program was launched in Taiwan nearly a decade ago. However, no clear regulations regarding length of stay (LOS) in the program and extension standards exist. Thus, the allocation of limited medical resources such as hospital beds is a major issue. METHODS: This novel study retrospectively investigated the effects of functional performance and national health insurance (NHI) costs on PAC-CVD LOS. Data for 263 patients with stroke who participated in the PAC-CVD program were analysed. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to estimate the effects of functional performance and NHI costs on LOS at three time points: weeks 3, 6, and 9. RESULTS: At week 3, age, NHI costs, modified Rankin scale score, and Barthel index significantly affected LOS, whereas at week 6, age and NHI costs were significant factors. However, functional performance and NHI costs were not significant factors at week 9. CONCLUSIONS: The study provides crucial insights into the factors affecting LOS in the PAC-CVD program, and the results can enable medical decision-makers and health care teams to develop inpatient rehabilitation plans or provide transfer arrangements tailored to patients. Specifically, this study highlights the importance of early functional recovery and consideration of NHI costs when managing LOS in the PAC-CVD program.

Determinants of healthcare seeking and out-of-pocket expenditures in a "free" healthcare system: evidence from rural Malawi.

BACKGROUND: Monitoring financial protection is a key component in achieving Universal Health Coverage, even for health systems that grant their citizens access to care free-of-charge. Our study investigated out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) on curative healthcare services and their determinants in rural Malawi, a country that has consistently aimed at providing free healthcare services. METHODS: Our study used data from two consecutive rounds of a household survey conducted in 2012 and 2013 among 1639 households in three districts in rural Malawi. Given our explicit focus on OOPE for curative healthcare services, we relied on a Heckman selection model to account for the fact that relevant OOPE could only be observed for those who had sought care in the first place. RESULTS: Our sample included a total of 2740 illness episodes. Among the 1884 (68.75%) that had made use of curative healthcare services, 494 (26.22%) had incurred a positive healthcare expenditure, whose mean amounted to 678.45 MWK (equivalent to 2.72 USD). Our analysis revealed a significant positive association between the magnitude of OOPE and age 15-39 years (p = 0.022), household head (p = 0.037), suffering from a chronic illness (p = 0.019), illness duration (p = 0.014), hospitalization (p = 0.002), number of accompanying persons (p = 0.019), wealth quartiles (p2 = 0.018; p3 = 0.001; p4 = 0.002), and urban residency (p = 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that a formal policy commitment to providing free healthcare services is not sufficient to guarantee widespread financial protection and that additional measures are needed to protect particularly vulnerable population groups.

Desafíos de la Red Asistencial Pública de Chile en la Especialidad de Trastornos Temporomandibulares y Dolor Orofacial / Challenges of the Chilean Public Health Care System Network in the Temporomandibular Disorders and Orofacial Pain Specialty

RESUMEN: Los Trastornos Temporomandibulares (TTM) son un conjunto de patologías musculares y articulares que afectan al sistema masticatorio. Según estadísticas nacionales, la prevalencia de al menos un diagnóstico de TTM en la población adulta corresponde al 49,6 %, mientras que el 19,6 % padece de un dolor temporomandibular severo. La atención de pacientes afectados por estos trastornos corresponde al odontólogo especialista en trastornos temporomandibulares y dolor orofacial (TTM y DOF), especialidad reconocida legalmente desde el año 2013 por el decreto 8 del Ministerio de Salud. Estas patologías no están incorporadas a las prestaciones de salud oral de las Garantías Explícitas en Salud (GES) y recientemente se han comenzado a establecer protocolos de derivación a la especialidad desde la Atención Primaria Odontológica. En el presente estudio se realiza un análisis de la situación actual de la especialidad de TTM y DOF en la red pública de atención y se plantean posibles soluciones y mejoras a los problemas encontrados.

ABSTRACT: Temporomandibular Disorders (TMD) comprise a heterogenous group of muscle and joint disorders that affect the masticatory system. According to national statistics, the prevalence of at least one diagnosis of TMD in the adult population is 49.6 %, while 19.6 % suffers from severe temporomandibular pain. Care of patients affected by these disorders corresponds to the dentist specialized in temporomandibular disorders and orofacial pain (TMD and OFP); these particular disorders and the specialty were incorporated by the Ministry of Health in 2013.. The pathologies are not incorporated in the Explicit Health Care Guarantees (GES) and only recently protocols for a referral program were established for Primary Dental Care in this area. In this study, the present situation of the specialty of TMD and OFP in the public health care network is analyzed, as well as possible solutions and improvements to the difficulties encountered therein.

Gene Editing, Enhancing and Women's Role.

A recent article on the front page of The Independent (September 18, 2015) reported that the genetic 'manipulation' of IVF embryos is to start in Britain, using a new revolutionary gene-editing technique, called Crispr/Cas9. About three weeks later (Saturday 10, October 2015), on the front page of the same newspaper, it was reported that the National Health Service (NHS) faces a one billion pound deficit only 3 months into the new year. The hidden connection between these reports is that gene editing could be used to solve issues related to health care allocation. Improving the health of future generations might coincide with public health goals; it might improve the health of individuals and communities, and, if successful, might be seen as a public good. However, enhancing future generations will require In Vitro Fertilisation and Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis. Remarkably, the necessary involvement of women in an enhancing scenario has not been discussed by its proponents. The present discourse on moral obligations of future generations, although not referring to women, seems to imply that women might be required, morally, if not legally, to reproduce with IVF. Enhancing future generations will be gendered, unless the artificial womb is developed. These are challenging issues that require a wider perspective, of both women and men. Despite the lack of a unified feminist conclusion in the discussions about the merits and risks of human genome modification, there is an urgent need to clarify the role of women in this scenario.

Personal Responsibility and Lifestyle Diseases.

What does it take for an individual to be personally responsible for behaviors that lead to increased risk of disease? We examine three approaches to responsibility that cover the most important aspects of the discussion of responsibility and spell out what it takes, according to each of them, to be responsible for behaviors leading to increased risk of disease. We show that only what we call the causal approach can adequately accommodate widely shared intuitions to the effect that certain causal influences-such as genetic make-up or certain social circumstances-diminish, or undermine personal responsibility. However, accepting the causal approach most likely makes personal responsibility impossible. We therefore need either to reject these widely shared intuitions about what counts as responsibility-softening or undermining or to accept that personal responsibility for behaviors leading to increased risk of disease rests on premises so shaky that personal responsibility is probably impossible.

Assisted reproduction policies in Israel: a retrospective analysis of in vitro fertilization-embryo transfer.

OBJECTIVE: To analyze whether the results and effectiveness of the open-ended treatment with IVF in Israel justifies the policy of limitless nondonor IVF rounds. DESIGN: The research sample included 535 patients. The files of these patients were reviewed; data were extracted into a questionnaire, transferred into digital files, and analyzed with SPSS. SETTING: IVF clinics. PATIENT(S): Two hundred ten women who began IVF treatment in 2000 and 325 women who were in IVF treatment during 2010. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Retrospective analysis of the success rates of live births resulting from cycles with IVF in women who started treatment in 2000, retrospective analysis of IVF results during 2010, and number of cycles in women who were in IVF treatment during 2010. RESULT(S): In the 2000 cohort, the rate of success with IVF was 54%. The success rate fell as the number of unsuccessful cycles and duration of infertility increased; age at the beginning of the treatment was influential. A similar pattern appeared in the group that was in treatment during 2010. The rate of success in the group that was in IVF treatment during 2010 was 16.6%; of the women in this group (2010, ongoing), 25% had already undergone more than five cycles and 12% of the women had already undergone more than seven cycles. CONCLUSION(S): Although limited in scope, this study suggests that the policy of limitless nondonor IVF-ET cycles in Israel should be further examined and assessed.

Priority setting in health care as portrayed in South Korean and Israeli newspapers.

Studies have reported differences in the public's understanding of, trust in, and satisfaction with its priority-setting processes and outcomes across countries. How the media frames and reports decision making processes and outcomes may both reflect and affect the public's knowledge of and attitudes toward them. Nevertheless, no studies have analyzed how priority-setting decision making processes are portrayed in the media. We analyzed 202 newspaper articles published over a decade, from January 2000 through December 2009, in leading newspapers of Israel and South Korea. The findings reveal intriguing differences between the countries in both the number and content of the reports. The issue of priority setting is much less salient in Korean than in Israeli society. While the complexity of the task was the most prevalent theme in the Israeli reports sampled, benefits package expansion decisions were most common in the Korean reports. Similarly, the Israeli reports emphasized the qualifications and backgrounds of individual members of the decision making committee, but the equivalent Korean committee was not portrayed as a major actor, and so received less attention. The least reported theme in both countries was priority-setting procedures and principles. These findings, along with results from previous studies which indicate that public satisfaction with the two systems differs between the countries, provoke several interesting future research questions.