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PubMed1992

Toward the financial integration of public mental health services.

The public treatment of seriously mental ill patients continues to be frustrated by the lack of administrative and financial integration of state and community mental health services. Several states have initiated attempts to improve the cost-effectiveness of public mental health services through mechanisms that create financial incentives fostering community-based alternatives to psychiatric hospitalization. Examples of such mechanisms include capitation financing systems, performance contracts, regional mental health authorities, utilization review, and bed-targets. This paper reviews evidence supporting the need for and success of these efforts, and also addresses their limitations.

Adult↗
PubMed1993

View from the bridge: reflections of a recovering staff model HMO psychiatrist.

The phenomenon of managed care is misperceived by its critics as a movement. Atheoretical in nature, and driven by spiralling health care costs, it represents the introduction of an executive function into the free-for-all (a supremely ironic term) of American medicine. Part one of this article traces the origin and development of the mental health carve-out, relating it to its antecedents, and describing its 3 overlapping phases: utilization review, discounted fees, and network development and management. Part two describes the key concept of the continuum of care and the role of the case manager in monitoring a care episode. The article concludes by anticipating seven future trends and calling for mental health leadership to recognize and ally with the need to manage resources in a more rational and efficient manner.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMed1995

Audit of antibiotic usage in medium-sized general hospital over an 11-year period. The impact of antibiotic policies.

The objective of the present study was to evaluate trends in antibiotic expenditure over an 11-year period (1982-1992) in a 370-bed district general hospital in Northern Ireland and to examine the impact of two separate antibiotic policies on antibiotic usage. A further objective was to examine the attitudes of prescribers to the second policy. Drug utilization review was used to collect information on antibiotic expenditure and usage before and after introduction of separate antibiotic policies in 1985 (not intensively monitored) and 1989 (intensively monitored). A main questionnaire was used to determine the attitudes of prescribers. The first policy (1985) showed no benefits with regard to the number of antibiotic entities stocked (45 before, 45 after), number of dosage units issued (9.3% increase) or expenditure (33.3% increase). The 1989 policy led to significant reductions in the number of antibiotic entities stocked (28.9%), number of antibiotics issued (11.9%) and expenditure (6.1%). Expenditure began to spiral upwards when active monitoring of the second policy was suspended. The majority of prescribers (87.2%) who responded to the questionnaire (56.5% response rate) felt that the 1989 policy made a positive contribution to antibiotic usage in the hospital.

Anti-Bacterial Agents↗
PubMed1990

The Mental Health Services Program for Youth.

This paper traces the development of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Mental Health Services Program for Youth, a private initiative designed to improve the organization, financing, and delivery of service to seriously mentally ill youth. The rationale and structure of this five-year initiative are discussed. In July 1989, 12 one-year development grants were awarded under the program's first phase. All of the grantees propose to utilize a number of strategies to restructure their mental health financing systems. Other common features include: the development of central intake units, early identification mechanisms, stronger utilization review protocols, and unified client tracking mechanisms.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

Linking quality assurance and quality of care.

Since the introduction of the problem-oriented record into hospital work nearly 30 years ago, psychiatry has struggled to adapt it to the complex bio-psycho-social determinants of illness and therapeutics. This struggle has been especially difficult with the seriously and persistently ill patient who requires more than a minimal hospital stay. Justification of the work with the longer-stay patient has now come under extreme pressure from utilization review, third-party payors and quality assurance, but hospital psychiatrists continue to have the same difficulties with documentation. Based on two years of chart review with clinical teams, principles of psychosocial rehabilitation and a dynamically oriented philosophy of inpatient treatment for the long-term patient, this presentation demonstrates one method for linking problems and goals with length of stay, quality assurance behaviors with quality of care, and integration of the multidisciplinary team into the entire process.

Forms and Records Control↗
PubMed1990

A case mix procedure for matching the clinical characteristics of patients with dual disorders to planned treatment and treatment costs.

A procedure for matching the clinical characteristics of patients with a dual substance abuse psychiatric disorder to planned treatment resource consumption is described. The procedure uses current standards and practices within the mental health literature on dual diagnosed patients, providing an empirical basis for quality assurance, utilization review, and program evaluation. These procedures permit an empirical linking of clinical service performance to the costs of clinical resources, thereby providing a means of: (a) evaluating program costs in terms of the specific clinical characteristics of patients and (b) planning budgets based on the patients' clinical needs. The methods are sufficiently flexible so that as new clinical research recommend changes in assessment and treatment, the case mix definitions and evaluation procedures can be easily modified.

Comorbidity↗
PubMed2005

Towards the neural basis of magnetoreception: a neuroanatomical approach.

After more than two decades of intensive research, the physiological mechanisms of animal magnetoreception remain enigmatic. The primary magnetoreceptors are still unknown and our knowledge of the neural substrate subserving magnetic orientation is meagre. Here we argue that this dismal outcome can be largely attributed to the fact that the potential of recently available neurobiological techniques has not been utilized, review some of these techniques and propose a step by step scenario for future research, concentrating on the heuristic potential of instrumentalizing inducible transcription factors (ITFs) such as Jun, Fos, Fos-related antigens and Krox. ITFs can be used as markers of neuronal activation in experiments on freely moving animals performing magnetically based orientation tasks, in experiments on anaesthetised or restrained animals stimulated magnetically, and in experiments employing treatments that specifically disrupt magnetoreception. Therefore they can serve as tools for identifying neurons involved in the detection and processing of magnetic information. When used in combination with other neurobiological tools, ITFs can also be useful for a more comprehensive description of the involved neural networks, for the identification of magnetoreceptors and, in the case of the photoreceptor-based mechanism, also for studying the involvement of specific light-sensitive molecules in the primary transduction process of magnetoreception. Limitations and pitfalls of the proposed approach are also discussed.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Radiographic features of Ewing's sarcoma of the bones of the hands and feet.

The radiographic features of Ewing's sarcoma of the bones of the hands and feet are reviewed utilizing cases obtained from the Mayo Clinic patient files and the consultation files of Drs. D.C. Dahlin and K.K. Unni. This series consists of a total of 43 cases of pathologically proven Ewing's sarcoma involving the small bones of the hands and feet. The classic radiographic features of Ewing's sarcoma in the long bones, including lytic, permeative destruction, aggressive periosteal reaction, cortical violation, and a soft tissue mass, are also seen in the bones of the hands and feet, with similar frequency. These classic features are most commonly present in lesions affecting the short tubular bones. Lesions affecting the tarsal bones more often demonstrate atypical radiographic features. These atypical radiographic appearances may play a role in the reported delay in diagnosis of Ewing's sarcoma within the tarsal bones.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Medical informatics: an introduction to computer technology in medicine.

Access and effective management of medical information have become increasingly important in the practice of medicine today. Computer technology is developing to achieve this goal. This had led to the emergence of a new specialty, medical informatics, the basic science of the use of computers in medicine. Areas of patient care to which medical informatics has been applied include history taking, medical records, medical data base information retrieval, test performance, test result retrieval, decision support, patient monitoring, medical education, quality assurance and utilization review, medical research, and medical office and financial management. It is important that these applications become integrated with existing medical information systems and that physicians take a leading role in developing and maintaining these systems.

Computers↗
PubMed1977

Surgical management of massive ventral hernias in children.

The management of 7 children with massive abdominal wall hernias is reviewed, utilizing a technique of stabilizing the defect by insertion of a Teflon mesh prosthesis followed by pneumoperitoneum and staged reduction. Teflon mesh has proven ideally suited for this purpose because of its flexibility, elasticity, and relative nonreactivity, allowing it to be applied directly over the surface of exposed bowel without inducing fistula formation. Although the mesh is securely incorporated into the fascial perimeter of the abdominal wall, a pseudomembrane is formed at the point of contact with the bowel surface which allows subsequent dissection and removal of the prosthesis with relative ease. Having limited the size of the defect by insertion of the mesh, an ideal situation is created for use of pneumoperitoneum to expand the peritoneal cavity and stretch the normal tissues of the abdominal wall, thus facilitating subsequent operative reduction of the ventral hernia. Utilizing this approach, excellent cosmetic and functional results have been achieved in all 7 patients.

Abdominal Muscles↗
PubMed1995

Initiating a capitated program for HMO patients.

In 1986, our hospitals were selected by a large Massachusetts independent practice HMO to administer a capitated program for psychiatric inpatients residing in Boston and in neighboring northern cities and towns. Administering this program necessitated designing new systems of accounting, utilization review, physician reimbursement, staff education, orientation, and management control as well as contracting with other hospitals for locked psychiatric beds. It also included developing day treatment, crisis intervention, and visiting nurse services. Psychiatrists had to adapt to a new reimbursement system which paid by the admission or which withheld 30% of payment until program performance was evaluated. Those who valued intrapsychic change found it hard to value crisis intervention and symptom reduction to the same degree. Although there was considerable variation in each hospital's performance, there was over a 25% decrease in patient days and an overall reduction in readmission rate during the first year of the program.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Continuity and change in preferred provider organizations.

This paper presents the results from a national survey of preferred provider organizations (PPOs) that was conducted in 1988. It is based on telephone interviews conducted by the authors with executives in over 170 PPOs in the United States. We compare the survey results with those obtained from similar surveys conducted in 1985 and 1986, allowing us to assess the extent to which PPOs have grown and changed. We found that PPOs have continued to grow at an extremely rapid rate. During the Summer and Fall of 1988, the time in which the survey took place, 37.6 million people were eligible to use PPO benefits, compared to the 16.5 million figure we obtained two years earlier. We did not find, however, that PPOs are moving in the direction of providing more innovative forms of health care cost containment. Most PPOs still rely on discounts from providers and utilization review to achieve savings. There is little trend towards using incentive reimbursement techniques and choosing preferred providers that have shown themselves to be cost-efficient. We conclude that in the coming years PPOs must demonstrate the ability to control rising health care costs. To accomplish this, they will need to put more pressure on providers to use resources more sparingly. Otherwise, they may lose their market share to other forms of managed care.

Capitation Fee↗
PubMed1988

An instrument for treatment progress and matching: the recovery attitude and treatment evaluator (RAATE).

Clinicians are under increasing pressure to contain costs and to justify their triage decisions and addiction treatment settings to third party payors. Treatment-effectiveness research points to the need for better patient/treatment matching decisions and systems of care. The Recovery Attitude and Treatment Evaluator (RAATE) is an instrument to develop a profile of the severity of the patient's illness. It is a clinically useful, chemical-dependency-specific, comprehensive but efficient instrument to help classify patients, define admission and utilization review criteria, match patients to the appropriate level of care, and measure treatment progress. The RAATE can be used by clinicians, health care managers and researchers in the chemical dependency treatment field, which lacks a common "language" for comparing patient populations, describing treatment progress, and communicating across disciplines.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Insurance coverage for obesity treatment.

Recent work demonstrates the benefits of weight loss from intensive lifestyle modification. One barrier to counseling may be lack of reimbursement. We sought to quantify the obesity coverage policies of insurers in Pennsylvania. A three-page questionnaire was sent to eligible Pennsylvania health plans. Respondents included company medical directors and administrators from other departments, including public relations, provider relations, disease management, and utilization review. The questionnaire inquired about major treatment modalities for obesity, including details of coverage. Sixteen of 19 eligible plans (84%) responded. All plans provided some coverage for bariatric surgery. Nine out of 16 companies (56%) stated that they covered individual dietary counseling, but only five paid for intensive counseling. Less than 50% of plans reimbursed other forms of lifestyle modification or weight loss medication. Surgery was covered significantly more often than all other treatment modalities (P<0.02 for all comparisons). No differences in reimbursement were found by plan type or by number of enrollees. Insurance reimbursement for obesity in Pennsylvania does not consistently reflect recent evidence for the benefits of lifestyle modification. Given the increasing evidence for the clinical and cost-effectiveness of nonsurgical weight loss therapy, coverage policies may begin to change.

Bariatric Surgery↗
PubMed1988

Pyelonephritis in adult women: inpatient versus outpatient therapy.

PURPOSE: The traditional treatment of acute pyelonephritis has been hospitalization and parenteral administration of antibiotics. No previous study, however, has attempted to differentiate between those patients with pyelonephritis who might be safely managed as outpatients and those in whom hospitalization is required. We therefore decided to determine whether women with pyelonephritis can be effectively and safely managed outside the hospital. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The medical records of 94 female outpatients and 100 hospitalized women treated for acute pyelonephritis at San Francisco General Hospital were reviewed. Utilizing baseline clinical and laboratory data, we compared outcome in the two groups, and computed the cost-benefit of managing pyelonephritis on an outpatient basis. RESULTS: We observed a similarity in the frequency of successful outcomes (approximately 90 percent in each group) and absence of serious adverse outcome in any outpatient. Results of urine culture were comparable in inpatients and outpatients, with Escherichia coli identified as the most common urinary pathogen in both groups. The frequency of resistance to ampicillin of E. coli and other urinary pathogens was nearly 30 percent. A cost analysis demonstrated a 7.5-fold difference between the inpatient and outpatient groups. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that treatment of pyelonephritis with oral antibiotics poses a safe and effective method of therapy in immunocompetent women without underlying illness. The use of ampicillin as a single agent for the treatment of pyelonephritis, however, is inadvisable. Our study also demonstrates the potential savings in managing selected patients with pyelonephritis as outpatients.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1999

What's past is prologue.

Alfred Blalock had a remarkable career as a clinical surgeon, laboratory investigator, and a teacher of medical students and residents. This article examines certain potential critical influences on his career, including Drs William Halsted and Barney Brooks, and Dr Blalock's early years as a resident and subsequently a faculty member at Vanderbilt. It is intended as a focused review, utilizing original sources as possible.

Cardiac Surgical Procedures↗
PubMed1997

Prognostic indicators in medical rehabilitation of traumatic brain injury: a commentary and review.

The National Information System (NIS) project is developing consensus opinion regarding a proposed structural framework for the prognostic data to be collected as part of this proposed multicenter research effort on severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). This article provide a brief history of the process, examines challenges facing rehabilitation research in this particular area, discusses reasons for identifying prognostic data within the research context of the NIS project, and describes methodologies for use of mathematical models in predicting outcome from TBI. The literature regarding prognostic parameters in severe TBI is briefly reviewed, utilizing three broad parameter categorizations: preinjury, injury, and postinjury. The implications of this research and directions for further study within the NIS project are discussed.

Brain Injuries↗
PubMed1999

A multiple-dose safety and bioequivalence study of a narrow therapeutic index drug: a case for carbamazepine.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Carbamazepine is among those drugs that have been considered to have a narrow therapeutic plasma concentration range, that is, a narrow therapeutic index. Although the US Food and Drug Administration has approved new generic products based on standard single-dose bioequivalence studies, several state formularies, including the New Jersey Drug Utilization Review Council, have recently established additional criteria for acceptance of bioequivalence of narrow therapeutic index drugs, limiting the use of some approved generic drugs in specific states. To further validate the adequacy of single-dose studies for the determination of bioequivalence of narrow therapeutic index drugs, a multiple-dose study was conducted that more closely reflected therapeutic use. METHODS: A single-center, multiple-dose, randomized, open-label, 2-way crossover bioequivalence study was conducted in 32 fasting volunteers at steady state. Subjects received the test and reference products as a 200 mg carbamazepine tablet 3 times a day in a crossover fashion. Concentrations of carbamazepine and carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide in plasma were measured by a validated specific HPLC method. RESULTS: A total of 28 subjects completed the study. Pharmacokinetic parameters and measures of fluctuation for both products at steady state were similar, with 90% and 95% confidence intervals falling within 90% and 110%. CONCLUSION: The multiple-dose study provided reliable safety and bioequivalence data under rigorous statistical conditions and confirmed bioequivalence of test and reference products determined by a single-dose study.

Adult↗