Biomedical subjects

K Grimmer

Publications and source records attributed to K Grimmer.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1997

The effect of age and chronicity on patient recall of public hospital outpatient clinic use.

This paper reports on an investigation of the effect of age and chronicity on the accuracy of recall by allied health patients of their attendance at outpatient clinics at a public hospital over the previous 12 months. Patients consistently under-reported use of outpatient clinics, when compared with hospital records. Age and chronicity were not found to be determinants of the observed differences. Other potential influences on patient recall were identified to assist future testing.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1996

A survey of general practitioners: implications for the hospital/community interface.

This paper presents the results of a survey that was conducted under the auspices of a Commonwealth-funded Ambulatory Care Reform Project. The survey was undertaken in all telephone areas of South Australia (08, 085, 086, 087, 088) to investigate issues of access to, and availability of, clinical allied health outpatient services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital with respect to general practitioners. Six hundred and twenty general practitioners in South Australia received a mailed survey enclosing a reply-paid envelop. Forty-nine per cent of the general practitioners responded. The highest response was from practitioners in the metropolitan area (08 telephone area) and the immediate Adelaide country area (085 telephone area). General practitioners supplied quality and in-depth responses that clearly indicated issues they felt impeded full use of clinical allied health services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. These issues have implications not only for the clinical allied health outpatient services at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, but for all clinical allied health outpatient services in the public hospital system.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Clinical indicators: a methodological approach.

Clinical indicators offer physiotherapists a tool by which quality of care can be flagged and evaluated. Such a flag requires a measure of the cost of treatment as well as the outcome achieved for that cost. Traditionally, the number of treatments to discharge has been used as a proxy measure of cost as well as outcome of physiotherapy care. However, physiotherapists recognize that the cost of treatment is an inappropriate reflection of the outcome of care in many instances. The challenge for physiotherapists in developing clinical indicators is to set appropriate flags of quality of care. This paper presents a methodological approach to the development of a flag of performance for acute lower back pain.

Acute Disease↗

PubMed1994

A multicentre exercise: developing an indicator for the physiotherapy management of acute low back pain.

The collection of information from a number of treatment centres is necessary for the development of diagnosis-specific treatment norms. From these data, realistic outcomes of treatment can be determined and significant risk factors identified. By comparing individual therapists' data with the overall treatment norms, acceptable levels of variation can be established. A prospective pilot study on acute low back pain, which examined both patient characteristics and outcomes of physiotherapy intervention, was conducted among one-third of the private physiotherapy practices in Tasmania. There was no previously developed methodology on which to base the study. As a result, the distribution of treatment numbers was first examined in order to flag the mean number of treatments. The outcome of the patient groups which fell on either side of the mean flag (the normal and outlying patient groups) was then defined. A clinical indicator was developed from both treatment numbers and outcome.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMed1993

Relationship between occupation and episodes of headache that match cervical origin pain patterns.

The relationship between headache that matches cervical origin pain patterns, occupation, gender, age, and hours of work is examined in a randomly sampled, never-injured population. Although gender was established as a significant factor in the association between occupation and headache, age and hours of work were shown to have no effect. Women working in managerial and professional occupations had a significantly higher risk of cervical origin headache when compared with women working in either clerical or blue collar occupations. A similar association for men was not noted.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Public perceptions of a rural emergency medical services system.

INTRODUCTION: To determine the awareness of citizens and physicians concerning the capabilities of a rural emergency medical services (EMS) system. HYPOTHESIS: Citizens and physicians are unaware of the capabilities of the EMS system. METHODS: Residents were selected randomly from the local telephone directory and asked a series of structured questions about their EMS agency. A written survey was distributed to area physicians. Chi-square analysis was used to compare the proportion of respondents who knew the available interventions in their community with the proportion of those who did not. Statistical significance was inferred at p < 0.01. RESULTS: A total of 49% of the citizens were able to identify available skills, and 41.4% of the physicians were able to identify available skills. Physicians were less likely than were the citizens to be able to identify the skills performed by each provider (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: This study indicates that both physicians and the lay public have little understanding of the capabilities of their EMS system.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Episodes of allied health outpatient care: an investigation of service delivery in acute public hospital settings.

This paper describes 'episodes of allied health outpatient care' by linking related clinical allied health outpatient contacts. Episodes were tracked on 10095 patients in 46 public hospital outpatient services in eight hospitals over a 10-month period during 1996, as part of a Commonwealth Ambulatory Care Reform project. Fifty-one per cent of patients completed at least one 'episode of allied health outpatient care' during the period of the study. An episode theoretically comprised all those occasions of service provided to the one patient for the one condition in the one allied health outpatient service, using the one referral. There were difficulties in flagging the beginning and end of episodes, as services used specific ways of defining and recording episode characteristics. Describing allied health outpatient service usage by episode has implications for developing funding models that are appropriate to the core business of allied health services.

Ancillary Services, Hospital↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Performance indicators for discharge planning: a focused review of the literature.

The literature on discharge planning was reviewed with the aim of developing performance indicators to complement the phases of successful discharge planning of: assessment of need, development of plans, implementation of plans and evaluation of outcome. The researchers suggest that these four phases link closely with steps in the Total Quality Management (TQM) cycle of thinking, planning, acting and reviewing. The literature review took account of stakeholders in discharge planning, defining them as hospital and community services, funding bodies and patients and carers. While the literature generally supports the need to develop discharge planning performance indicators, there were few concrete examples that reflected all phases of discharge planning or the needs of all stakeholders. The literature has focused largely on nursing discharge planning activities for specific patient groups, and/or particular hospital and community settings, and has commonly addressed only one or two phases of discharge planning. There were few articles that explored health outcome or cost savings derived from discharge planning on a large scale or over the longer term. The researchers conceptualised a notion of domains of quality discharge planning (efficiency of discharge planning process, timeliness of decision-making, stakeholder satisfaction and managing impediments to discharge), and propose performance indicators that address each discharge planning phase from the perspective of stakeholders.

Efficiency, Organizational↗