[Elderly people, precariousness, social handicap and length of stay: pilot study at the Lariboisière-Fernand Widal Hospital Group in Paris]. / Personnes âgées, précarité, handicap social et durée de séjour: étude pilote au groupe hospitalier Lariboisière-Fernand Widal de Paris.

OBJECTIVES: To administer a social handicap questionnaire associated with French DRGs (PMSI) to determine the social handicaps of a population hospitalized in a public health establishment and to measure the cost implications for the establishment due to increased length of stay (DMS). METHOD: A prospective pilot study has been carried out in the Lariboisière-Fernand Widal Hospital Group in Paris targeting users 50 or more years old hospitalized for short stays in medicine, surgery and obstetrics. Data of the PMSI and answers to the questionnaire for hospitalisations longer than 24 hours have been exploited. RESULTS: Two hundred twenty-two stays from 8 to 23 November 2005 have been analyzed: 140 pertained to patients aged 50-69 years (27.8%) and 82 to patients aged 70 or more years (16.3%). Three-fourths of the persons aged 50-69 and 70 or over presented a social handicap: 45% showed a strong handicap and a third an average handicap. The three indicators "renter/owner", "interior comfort" and "family relations" were the major determinants of social handicap for those aged 70 or more, 50-69 and 50 or more years. For the patients 70 years and over and those 50-69 years, with an average handicap, the indicator was "income" with the domain "patrimony." For strong handicaps, it was the indicator "scolarisation" for the 70 or more years and the indicator "income" for the 50-69 years old. When all classes and populations were pooled, the DMS was significantly lower than that of the ENC (p<0.001 for the 70 years and over; p<0.05 for the 50-69 years). With again all classes and populations pooled, patients 70 and over stayed in hospital 6.50 days less on average compared to data published by the ENC; those 50-69 years stayed 3.57 days less. Persons aged 50 and over with a social handicap remained hospitalized on average more than 2.5 days: 2.2 days for the 70 and over and 3.1 days for the 50-69 years group. In terms of hospital days that produces an increase of 18%, corresponding to a supplementary expenditure attributable to social handicap of approximately 5.9 million euros. CONCLUSION: This pilot study with a questionnaire disability social PMSI proposing specific aid, but also reducing the DMS, provides several promising information but also indicates the limits of our approach. Among these, we note in particular: (a) its regular feasibility requires constant supervision, wider and well-trained, (b) that the measurement of our tool can only be affirmed after its use in many patients, and (c) the classification of disability in social class could even be discussed again. We still wanted to explore whether through this initiative without much logistical, markers of interest had emerged, which seems to be the case.

[Social disability and public hospitals: towards a model of resource allocation]. / Handicap social et hôpitaux publics : pour un modèle d'allocation de ressources dans le cadre d'une politique de santé publique.

A recent study to measure social disability used the results of a questionnaire administered to 696 patients between March 14th and April 7th 2007 which showed that three-quarters of the population surveyed have a social disability. Major determinants of social disadvantage are found using three specific indicators: income, assets and home-interior comfort. A greater deterioration of poor health status was not particularly noted within the most socially disadvantage group of patients, and social disability did not lead to actual over-consumption of medical products or services. People with social disabilities remained hospitalised more than 1.5 days over the average length of hospital stay which accounts for an inferred additional costs to hospital budgets equivalent to 10.3 million ?. The article proposes a model for measuring social disability that can be used routinely upon patient admission to identify socially disadvantaged cases in order to offer those patients specific and tailored assistance and reduce the length of their stay. This model may also support public health policy monitoring.

[Equity and planning: a critical analysis of a third generation regional healthcare management program]. / Equité et planification: analyse critique d'un schéma régional d'organisation sanitaire de troisième génération "perinatalité".

The third generation of the regional healthcare organization plan (Sros III) proposes to develop the organisation of healthcare and its management according to evolution of its activities and the populations concerned. At the time of a strategic analysis of SROS III (what we refer to as its perinatal period), the question is whether promoters can move from an approach based on accessibility (egalitarian equity) to a needs-based approach (differential equity), which although more complicated in to apply and implement, was found be much better adapted to healthcare users. The research is derived from an analysis of documents from November 2004 to November 2006. A university public hospital developed the data which supported a proposal to shift from level I to level II. This proposition was retained in the territory's medical plan authorized by the regional health authorities. Health professionals and the architects of the healthcare plan have the capacity to new organizations responsible for taking into account the activities and healthcare needs of the population in order to initiate and establish differential equity.