A pilot study was conducted to identify which, if any, demographic or quality indicators differentiate HIV-positive patients from other long-term care patients. This study used the Minimum Data Set files for all New York state nursing homes submitted in 1997. Chi-square tests were used to assess difference in proportions of demographics and quality indicators between HIV-positive and HIV-negative patients. The HIV-positive patients tended to be between 40 and 59 years of age and male and were more likely to be Black or Hispanic. HIV-positive patients had a significantly higher prevalence of diagnosis or symptoms of depression without any treatment compared to HIV-negative patients. HIV-positive patients had significantly higher prevalence of weight loss, antipsychotic use, antianxiety/hypnotic use, and incontinence of bladder and bowel compared to HIV-negative patients. This study paves the way for the development of a more appropriate quality indicator system tailored to the AIDS population and allows facilities to make necessary improvements in the quality of care offered to this vulnerable population.

Adult↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Role of exercises and drills in the evaluation of public health in emergency response.

INTRODUCTION: Public health agencies have been participating in emergency preparedness exercises for many years. A poorly designed or executed exercise, or an unevaluated or inadequately evaluated plan, may do more harm than good if it leads to a false sense of security, and results in poor performance during an actual emergency. At the time this project began, there were no specific standards for the public health aspects of exercises and drills, and no defined criteria for the evaluation of agency performance in public health. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to develop defined criteria for the evaluation of agency performance. METHOD: A Delphi panel of 26 experts in the field participated in developing criteria to assist in the evaluation of emergency exercise performance, and facilitate measuring improvement over time. Candidate criteria were based on the usual parts of an emergency plan and three other frameworks used elsewhere in public health or emergency response. RESULTS: The response rate from the expert panel for Delphi Round I was 74%, and for Delphi Round II was 55%. This final menu included 46 public health-agency level criteria grouped into nine categories for use in evaluating an emergency drill or exercise at the local public health level. CONCLUSION: Use of the public health-specific criteria developed through this process will allow for specific assessment and planning for measurable improvement in a health agency over time.

Delphi Technique↗