American Indian Health: Innovations in Health Care, Promotion, and Policy

American Indian Health: Innovations in Health Care, Promotion, and Policy. Everett R. Rhoades. M.D., ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. xxiii. 459 pp.     

我国现行医疗卫生政策的相关问题分析

医疗卫生是构建和谐社会的重要因素之一,也是关乎百姓切身利益的重大问题之一,近年来,医疗体制的不断改革,医疗卫生的相关政策的不断出台,已经大大地改善了我国广大人民群众的“看病难,看病贵”等问题,增加了医保的覆盖人群,减轻了城市低收入人群及农村的医疗负担,但是,我们仍面临着巨大的挑战,新的问题也不断涌现,医疗卫生政策不适应现在的医疗需求发展、经济发展不均衡、不同层次群众的医疗需求有差异等,都是医疗卫生改革中面临的问题,医疗改革的不断推进势在必行。我国的医疗保障制度覆盖率已经达到95％,但是,现行的医疗保障制度的还不能从根本上解决人民群众的“就医难,治病贵”的问题,其他医疗保险不能与现行的医疗保障制度相适应,从而,影响了我国整体的医疗水平的提高。     

Impact of a Reference Center on Leprosy Control under a Decentralized Public Health Care Policy in Brazil

ObjectiveWe evaluated the profile of patients referred to the Fiocruz Outpatient Clinic, a reference center for the diagnosis and treatment of leprosy in Rio de Janeiro, RJ, and analyzed the origins and outcomes of these referrals.MethodsThis is an observational retrospective study based on information collected from the Leprosy Laboratory database at Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil. A total of 1,845 suspected leprosy cases examined at the reference center between 2010 and 2014 were included. The originating health service referrals and diagnostic outcomes were analyzed as well as the clinical and epidemiological data of patients diagnosed with leprosy.ResultOur data show that the profile of the patients treated at the Clinic has changed in recent years. There was an increase in both the proportion of patients with other skin diseases and those who had visited only one health service prior to our Clinic. Among the total 1,845 cases analyzed, the outcomes of 1,380 were linked to other diseases and, in 74% of these cases, a biopsy was not necessary to reach a diagnostic conclusion. A decrease in new leprosy case detection among our patients was also observed. Yet, among the leprosy patients, 40% had some degree of disability at diagnosis.ConclusionThe results of the present study demonstrated the importance of referral centers in support of basic health services within the decentralization strategy. But, the success of the program depends on the advent of new developmental tools to augment diagnostic accuracy for leprosy. However, it should be emphasized that for new diagnostic methods to be developed, a greater commitment on the part of the health care system regarding research is urgently needed.     

我国医养结合服务发展现状分析与政策建议

随着我国老龄化进程加快,医养结合在卫生政策与管理实践上已经成为普遍共识。现有研究主要从养老服务角度分析医养结合的概念、内涵以及实现路径,或从医学护理、医疗照护等方面探讨技术问题。医养结合模式,既不单纯是一种养老模式,也不单纯是一种医疗模式,而是医疗和养老融合的新模式,将改变传统的养老和医疗服务提供理念和方式,是解决我国老年人养老、医疗的创新之举,是建设健康中国的重要组成内容。本文从政策分析的角度出发,通过对医养结合概念的阐述、深入分析我国目前医养结合模式和存在的问题,提出政策建议。

     

Capacity-Building for Natural Resource Management: Lessons from the Health Sector

This paper examines capacity-building measures used by the health sector relevant to natural resource management (NRM) using the delivery of two programs in Australia through its recently formalized 56 community-based regional NRM Boards as a reference point. The delivery of NRM outcomes through devolved governance arrangements has been hampered by inadequate capacity in other countries (e.g., New Zealand, Canada). The inherent complexities of NRM, coupled with professional “comfort zones,” often limit actors from looking to other sectors confronting similar issues. This paper summarizes findings from ∼70 sources in health reviewing nine major capacity-building measures. The outcomes of research evaluating the relative benefits and disbenefits of applying these measures are discussed. The paper identifies several opportunities to trial some of these measures in NRM.

Psychiatric Treatment: General Implications and Lessons From Recent Court Decisions in California

The California legislature enacted tight constraints on the use of psychosurgery and electroconvulsive therapy in 1974. In April 1976 a State Court of Appeals declared part of the law to be unconstitutional. In doing so, the court enunciated several principles for regulating medical procedures. It affirmed the inherent police powers which permit the state to safeguard the public, especially incompetent, involuntary or confined persons, with respect to intrusive and hazardous medical procedures and to procedures which affect thought or feeling. Although limited to legislation concerning two psychiatric procedures, the court''s decision, and subsequently enacted legislation governing these procedures, has implications for other medical procedures and for other parts of the nation.     

Health Care Politics and Policy: The Business of Medicine: A Course for Physician Leaders

This article is a condensed and edited version of a speech delivered to The Business of Medicine: A Course for Physician Leaders symposium presented by Yale-New Haven Hospital and the Medical Directors Leadership Council at Yale University in November 2012 and drawn from Politics, Health, and Health Care: Selected Essays by Theodore R. Marmor and Rudolf Klein [1]. It faithfully reflects the major argument delivered, but it does not include the typical range of citations in a journal article. The material presented here reflects more than 40 years of teaching a course variously described as Political Analysis and Management, Policy and Political Analysis, and The Politics of Policy. The aim of all of these efforts is to inform audiences about the necessity of understanding political conflict in any arena, not least of which is the complex and costly world of medical care.     

Tuberculosis Treatment Managed by Providers outside the Public Health Department: Lessons for the Affordable Care Act

Introduction

Tuberculosis (TB) requires at least six months of multidrug treatment and necessitates monitoring for response to treatment. Historically, public health departments (HDs) have cared for most TB patients in the United States. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) provides coverage for uninsured persons and may increase the proportion of TB patients cared for by private medical providers and other providers outside HDs (PMPs). We sought to determine whether there were differences in care provided by HDs and PMPs to inform public health planning under the ACA.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional analysis of California TB registry data. We included adult TB patients with culture-positive, pulmonary TB reported in California during 2007–2011. We examined trends, described case characteristics, and created multivariate models measuring two standards of TB care in PMP- and HD-managed patients: documented culture conversion within 60 days, and use of directly observed therapy (DOT).

Results

The proportion of PMP-managed TB patients increased during 2007–2011 (p = 0.002). On univariable analysis (N = 4,606), older age, white, black or Asian/Pacific Islander race, and birth in the United States were significantly associated with PMP care (p<0.05). Younger age, Hispanic ethnicity, homelessness, drug or alcohol use, and cavitary and/or smear-positive TB disease, were associated with HD care. Multivariable analysis showed PMP care was associated with lack of documented culture conversion (adjusted relative risk [aRR] = 1.37, confidence interval [CI] 1.25–1.51) and lack of DOT (aRR = 8.56, CI 6.59–11.1).

Conclusion

While HDs cared for TB cases with more social and clinical complexities, patients under PMP care were less likely to receive DOT and have documented culture conversion. This indicates a need for close collaboration between PMPs and HDs to ensure that optimal care is provided to all TB patients and TB transmission is halted. Strategies to enhance collaboration between HDs and PMPs should be included in ACA implementation.     

Life-and-Death Decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Denmark: The Discrete Authority of Origin Stories

In what ways are care and compassion implicated in efforts to establish lives worth living? Drawing on fieldwork in a Danish Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), in this article we investigate the role of family biographies in conducting life-and-death decisions around premature infants. Guided by a larger literature on citizenship, we view decisions in the NICU as political acts of assigning citizenship. We ask what bodies and biographies can generate and evoke care and compassion among NICU staff and forge entries or exits from the Danish Welfare State. We demonstrate that infants’ origin stories are appointed legitimate forms of suffering in contemporary Danish society and are thus granted an unnoticed form of authority in life-and-death decisions. In this way, we conclude that what comes to constitute a life worth living in the twenty-first-century Danish Welfare State is in fact the worth of the family.