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Results for “General Accounting Office”

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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1999

Predictors of foster parents' satisfaction and intent to continue to foster.

OBJECTIVE: The United States General Accounting Office (United States General Accounting Office [USGAO], 1989) report on out-of-home care affirmed that the foster care system is in crisis. To shed light on some factors that influence retention, the study reported here asked "What factors influence the satisfaction of foster parents?" and "What factors influence the intent of licensed foster parents to continue to foster?" METHOD: A sample of 539 foster parents in eight urban counties in a large Midwestern state completed questionnaires aimed at addressing these questions. RESULTS: Some of the factors exerting the strongest influence on satisfaction were: feeling competent to handle the children who were placed; wanting to take in children who needed loving parents; no regrets about investment in foster children; foster mother's age; and agency social worker providing information and showing approval for a job well done. An example of factors exerting influence on intent to continue to foster include overall satisfaction, readiness to phone the social worker, number of foster boys in the home, being treated like one needed help oneself, and agency affiliation (private). CONCLUSIONS: Efforts to increase the supply of foster homes through recruitment is not enough. The support, training, and professional regard given to parents after they have begun the fostering task is of greater need. Based on analysis of the findings, implications for practice, programming, and policy are offered.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Science-based recommendations to prevent or reduce potential exposure to biological, chemical, and physical agents in schools.

The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) documented generally poor conditions of school facilities in the early 1990s. Previous papers examined, for time intervals ending before 2002, relationships between education facility indoor air and environmental quality (IEQ), including adequate ventilation, and occupant health and productivity. Research on IEQ related specifically to new or refurbished traditional school construction, or portable classrooms, is limited. A review of school IEQ literature through fall 2003 was conducted. Then, acknowledging the limited resources and competing priorities facing American schools, practical science-based, best practices recommendations to promote IEQ and hence prevent or reduce potential occupant exposure to biological, chemical, and physical agents of concern were proposed. Electronic search engines, conference proceedings, the Internet, and reference lists of peer-reviewed papers and reports were used. Eighteen best practices based on scientific references are presented.

Air Pollution, Indoor↗
PubMed2005

Governmental studies on medical malpractice: the implications of rising premiums for healthcare and the allocation of health resources.

The United States may or may not be facing a "malpractice crisis" which can result in a loss of quality of medical care in certain specialties by virtue of non-performance or the exiting of certain physicians from certain high-risk specialties due to increases in premiums. Various studies have been performed by various governmental agencies on a federal level in the United States. The Department of Legal Medicine, part of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, began collecting veteran's affairs medical malpractice claims data and extracting information from the analysis from medical records and associated documents. During the 1993 fiscal year, 801 medical malpractice claims were filed against the Department of Veteran's Affairs. The Department of Veteran's Affairs had approximately 125,000 hospital discharges and 26 million outpatient visits during the same time period. The rate of claims per hospital discharge was less than 1/ 1000 hospital patient discharges (.864/1000). Subsequent to that report, several other reports have been issued including a report on medical malpractice insurance generated by the General Accounting Office in 2003, some ten years later. More recently, a report of medical malpractice having implications on rising premiums on and access to health care generated by the General Accounting Office was released in August of 2003. This paper will demonstrate areas of concern with regard to the area of medical malpractice as well as incidence of medical malpractice and claims upon the insurance industry, medical specialties and the impact upon the community generally in the United States.

Federal Government↗
PubMed2005

Older adults--implications for private dental practitioners.

Currently, 35 million people are over the age of 65 in the United States. This number is expected to double to 70 million by 2030 (Figure 1). In California, 3.7 million people are over the age of 65, and this number is expected to increase to 6.4 million in the next 20 years or within the practice lifetime of students presently enrolled in California's dental hygiene and dental schools. The oldest old, those over age 85, are the fastest-growing segment of the United States and California's population. California's aging population will reflect the diversity of the state in general. Table 1 lists California's 65-plus population by age and ethnic/racial categories. By 2030, one in five Americans and Californians will be 65 years or older. Women who reach age 65 can expect to live an additional 19 years of life, while men can expect to live an additional 16 years. The gap in life expectancy between men and women is narrowing due to improvements in medical care, preventive health services, and healthier lifestyles. Figures 2-4 show the improvements in life expectancy at birth, age 65, and age 75 for the U.S. population. In the United States, there are an estimated 1.8 million nursing home beds used by 80 percent of the residents over age 65. A report by the U.S. General Accounting Office estimated that 43 percent of all Americans over age 65 will reside in a nursing home at some time in their life. California currently has approximately 100,000 residents living in one of the 1503 nursing home facilities throughout the state. Nursing home care in California accounts for 5.6 billion dollars. In 1998, the U.S. General Accounting Office reported that one in three California nursing homes was cited for serious or potentially life-threatening care problems. With an aging imperative in California, this paper will discuss the implications of an aging society on maintaining oral health throughout one's life, and the ability of dental professionals to meet the oral health needs of this population.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Quality and accountability in the ESRD program.

The quality of care received by patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States has received considerable public attention during the past several years because of a number of social, economic, and political factors. There has been a lingering impression that the poorer survival of dialysis patients in the United States, compared with their counterparts in other industrialized countries, is because of process factors for which there are opportunities for improvement, rather than just an adverse case mix. Recent reports by the Office of the Inspector General and the General Accounting Office have recommended that the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) improve its oversight of dialysis providers and hold the providers more accountable for their patient care outcomes. This requires the development of validated clinical performance measures that, in turn, should be derived from evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. The dual oversight model, with the state survey agencies agencies performing a quality assurance function to require facilities to meet minimal standards of operation (Medicare's conditions of participation) to prevent patient harm, and with the ESRD Networks performing a quality improvement function to bring processes and outcomes for all patients to a higher level, appears to be sound. HCFA's move toward increased provider accountability has included the development of facility-specific profiles for processes of care (dialysis adequacy) and outcomes (hemoglobin level and standardized mortality ratio), which may trigger state surveyor activities and that will be available for public scrutiny on a HCFA-sponsored web site. The adoption and application of continuous quality improvement methodologies at the dialysis provider level will be an important strategy for favorably positioning the facility in a competitive and demanding health care marketplace.

Humans↗