Since the late 1980s, policymakers have attempted to reduce the institutional bias of their long-term services and supports by investing in more accessible home and community-based services for older adults with long-term care needs and adults with disabilities. To further advance rebalancing discussions, this study examined the resident, facility, and state characteristics associated with the admission of community-dwelling older adults to the nursing home and the subsequent discharge of this population back to community settings. Data from the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 2.0 were used to construct episodes of care for all newly-admitted residents aged 65 and older to any free-standing U.S. nursing home. Several secondary datasets including the Online Survey, Certification, and Reporting Database (OSCAR), LTCFocus.org website, Nursing Home Compare, Nursing Home Data Compendium, and U.S. census estimates were used in the study analyses. On average, approximately 5.3% of all newly admitted nursing home residents were admitted directly from home with substantial variations across states. Most residents admitted directly from home had limited to extensive dependency in activities of daily living and moderate cognitive impairment. The most common diagnoses on admission included dementia and diabetes. While 31% of residents admitted from home remained in the facility at least 365 days after admission, 32% were discharged to the community, 15% were discharged to the hospital, and 21% died. Most residents admitted from assisted living communities, either remained in the facility or died by the end of the study. Findings from multivariate analyses suggest that resident-level factors, including demographics and health status, influenced the community transition of nursing home residents. Facility characteristics, including ownership, deficiency scores, the ratio of Medicare and Medicaid residents, and urban location were associated with discharge to the community but the effect of these factors differed according to length of stay. The commitment of a state to home and community-based services was also predictive of community discharge. Collectively, findings suggest that resident, facility, and state characteristics influence the community discharge of residents admitted from home or assisted living communities. By understanding the reasons for admission to the nursing home and the factors influencing discharge from the facility, policymakers and administrators can better anticipate and care for community-dwelling older adults with long-term care needs.

Introduction: Decentralization of antiretroviral therapy (ART) services faces decreasing quality when increasing ART coverage. This study compares nurse initiated and managed patients to doctor managed patients under these circumstances, using retention in care as a crude measure of quality of care. Methods: This was an observational retrospective cohort study. A simple data abstraction tool was used to collect baseline patient data from medical records of HIV positive patients (N=871) initiating ART at Mbabane Government Hospital and four of its outreach clinics, between 1st January and 30th June 2011. Descriptive summary statistics and comparison of the two cohorts using multivariate analysis was done. Results There was no statistically significant difference in retention rates between the doctors and nurses cohorts at 69.1% and 70.9%, respectively (P was 0.56). After adjusting for sex, haemoglobin, CD4 cell count, weight and WHO stage, the odds of being retained in care were similar between the two groups, adjusted OR: 1.11(95% CI: 0.72, 1.69), with a p value of 0.64. Haemoglobin and weight were positively associated with retention in care, while male sex was negatively associated with retention in care. Discussion: The similar retention rates between the two cohorts suggest that in terms of retention in care the service provided by the nurses was comparable to that provided by doctors. This is important to ART program managers as they scale-up ART decentralization. Conclusion: Task-shifting of ART initiation from doctors to nurses is feasible as nurse initiated and managed antiretroviral therapy is comparable to doctor initiated and managed treatment. / Dissertation (MSc)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / gm2014 / Clinical Epidemiology / unrestricted

Bakgrund: Arbetsmiljön på akutmottagningen är komplex och ständigt föränderlig. Sjuksköterskan förväntas hantera ett högt inflöde av patienter med varierande omvårdnadsbehov och allvarlighetsgrad. I takt med en allt högre arbetsbelastning, överbelagda sjukhus, långa väntetider och sjuksköterskebrist är det angeläget att tydliggöra hur sjuksköterskans arbetsmiljö på akutmottagningen ser ut och vad det har betydelse för patientsäkerheten. Syfte: Studiens syfte var att sammanställa forskning om sjuksköterskans arbetsmiljö på akutmottagningen med särskilt fokus på patientsäkerhet. Metod: Studien genomfördes som en beskrivande litteraturstudie baserad på 14 vetenskapliga artiklar. Artiklarna söktes i Pubmed och Cinahl samt via sekundär sökning. Resultatet: Genom att identifiera och kategorisera mönster och centrala teman i artiklarna kunde bärande aspekter passande syftet sammanställas. Analysen resulterade i två huvudområden: ”Sjuksköterskans arbetsmiljö på akutmottagningen” och ”Arbetsmiljöns betydelse för patientsäkerheten”. I sjuksköterskans arbetsmiljö framträdde sex faktorer som presenteras med underrubrikerna: arbetsbelastning, erfarenhet/kompetens, teamarbete, kommunikation, avbrott/störningar och ledning/organisation. Slutsats: Flera faktorer i sjuksköterskans arbetsmiljö på akutmottagningen har betydelse för patientsäkerheten. Faktorer som hög arbetsbelastning kan ses som både positivt och negativt beroende på sjuksköterskans kompetens, erfarenhet och personlighet. Vidare är tydlig organisatorisk ansvarsfördelning, ett välfungerande teamarbete med rak och riktad kommunikation av betydelse för arbetsmiljön och patientsäkerheten. När patientsäkerheten äventyras är det ofta brister i en eller flera arbetsmiljöfaktorer. Om nämnda faktorer är välfungerande finns förutsättningar för en god arbetsmiljö vilket gynnar vårdkvaliteten samt personalens arbetsglädje. / Abstract: The working environment within emergency care is complex and constantly changing. The nurse is expected to handle high inflows of patients with variety of severity and care needs. In keeping with increasing workload, overcrowded hospitals, long waiting times and lack of nurses it is important to clarify the nurse´s work environment in emergency care and its influence on patients’ safety. Purpose: The purpose of the study was to compile nurse´s working environment research within the emergency department with a particular focus on patient’s safety. Method: The study was conducted as a descriptive literature study based on 14 scientific articles. The articles referenced were searched in Pubmed and Cinahl, as well as via a secondary search. Results: By identifying and categorizing patterns and key themes in the articles, fundamental aspects could be compiled. The analysis resulted in two main areas: “Nurse´s working environment within emergency departments” and “the work environments influence on patients’ safety”. In the nurses working environment, six different influencing factors are described; workload, experience, teamwork, communication, interruptions and organization. Conclusion: Several factors in the nurse's work environment within emergency care are important for patient safety. Factors like high workload can be both positive and negative depending on the nurse's skills, experience and personality. Furthermore, clear organizational allocation of responsibilities, well-functioning teamwork and objective, direct communication is of importance to the work environment and patient safety. There are often shortcomings in one or more work environments where the patient’s safety is compromised. The presence of well - functioning factors in the work environment provide beneficial conditions for quality of patient care and staff satisfaction.

Disparate healthcare experiences continue to pose a challenge; vulnerable populations such as low-income and racial and ethnic minorities may not be able to afford or utilize care when needed or receive quality care. The sources of disparities are complex and multi-factorial, which include health care system-level factors such as insurance and health care workforce. It is relatively less known to what extent these contribute to disparities related to a patient’s overall health care experience across three important domains – affordability, utilization and satisfaction with care. This dissertation has three objectives. First, to assess how insurance benefit design affects health care utilization among poorest adults. Second, examine the role of insurance in addressing racial and ethnic disparities in access to preventive care. Finally, examine the role of health care providers in differences related to satisfaction with care among low-income patients. To answer questions posed in this dissertation, two different types of datasets are used: a unique hospital administrative data from a coverage program for low-income adults and 2008-2014 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). To examine the role of insurance and health care providers in disparities related to different outcomes of patient experience, several models are estimated; including mixed effects linear probability and negative binomial regressions, decomposition and multivariate linear probability models. Several efforts are being made to address inequalities through coverage expansions, removal of financial barriers for preventive services and incentivizing health care providers to improve patient satisfaction. The findings suggest that differences in utilization and satisfaction with care continue to persist among low-income and racial and ethnic minorities. However, policy levers and system-level reforms including value-based insurance designs that may curb healthcare costs without shifting the cost burden to poorer adults, continued reforms to expand coverage and improve access to a usual of care, and policy interventions that extend beyond improving workforce diversity and enhance provider skills to elicit patient communication preferences may foster positive patient experiences and ameliorate existing disparities. Improving patient experiences of care will thus require policy efforts with a comprehensive multi-level strategy that targets broad sectors – including payers, health care providers and society at large.

Bakgrund: Stress är ett vanligt förekommande problem inom vården och grundas i underbemanning samt hög arbetsbelastning. Sjuksköterskans tid med patienter påverkas av dessa faktorer. Relationen mellan sjuksköterskan och patienten utgör grunden för vårdandet. Relationen påverkas genom stress i sjuksköterskans arbete som leder till att patienter inte blir sedda eller bekräftade. Sjuksköterskan har ett ansvar att se till helheten hos patienten. Stress kan resultera i en försämrad vårdmiljö samt arbetsmiljö. Sjuksköterskan påverkas emotionellt av dessa faktorer vilket kan leda till utbrändhet och avsikt att lämna professionen, samt leda till försämrad omvårdnadskvalitet och patientsäkerhet. Syfte: Syftet är att beskriva sjuksköterskans upplevelser av otillräcklighet i vårdandet när sjuksköterskan påverkas av stress. Metod: En systematisk litteraturöversikt är vald och innefattar både kvalitativa och kvantitativa artiklar. Resultat: I resultatet framkom tre teman, dessa var bristande tid, dokumentationens inverkan samt sjuksköterskans välbefinnande. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskans stressiga arbetsmiljö behöver reduceras för att sjuksköterskan ska ha möjlighet att uppnå sina omvårdnadsmål och därmed uppleva sig nöjd med vårdandet. Underbemanning, hög arbetsbelastning och tidsbrist är faktorer som påverkar vårdandet och resulterar i försämrad omvårdnad samt patientsäkerhet. Detta påverkar även sjuksköterskan fysiskt och psykiskt. / Background: Stress is a common problem in nursing care, based on understaffing and high workload. The nurse’s time with patients are affected by these factors. The relationship between the nurse and the patient is the basis in nursing care. The relationship is affected by the stress in nurse’s work leading to patients not being seen or confirmed. Nurses have a responsibility to ensure patient’s integrity. Stress can result in a deterioration of care environment and work environment. Nurses are affected by this emotionally, leading to burnout and intention to leave the profession and may result in deterioration in quality of care and patient safety. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe nurses’ experiences of inadequacy in nursing care when the nurse is affected by stress. Method: A systematic literature review is selected and include qualitative and quantitative articles. Findings: The findings revealed three themes: lack of time, the impact of documentation and the nurse’s well—being. Conclusions: Nurse’s stressful work environment needs to be reduced to achieve optimal nursing care and so that they can feel satisfied with their care. Understaffing, high workload and lack of time are factors that affect nursing care and results in deteriorated care and patient safety. This also affects the nurse physically and mentally.

The primary motivation of this PhD by publication has been the apparent disconnect between the metrics of hospital quality of care at national and board level and patients’ experiences. Exploration of the gap led to the realisation of two key points. Firstly, the concept of healthcare quality continually evolves. Secondly, the NHS Scotland Measurement Framework does not include a measure of patient experience at the microsystem level (e.g. hospital ward). This is needed to counterbalance easier to obtain metrics of quality (e.g. waiting times). Resource tends to follow measurement. Papers 1 and 2 were exploratory, investigating theoretical and practical aspects of measuring quality of hospital care at the clinical microsystem level. With the associated Chapters, they highlighted both the necessity and the possibility of measuring the patient experience at the micro level of the healthcare system. They also drew attention to the inadequacy of “satisfaction” as a metric, leading to closer examination of “experience” as the decisive metric. This required the development of a systematic review protocol (Paper Three), then a systematic review (Paper Four). The review (Paper Four) examined the utility (validity, reliability, cost efficiency, acceptability and educational impact) of questionnaires to measure the patient experience of hospital quality of care, with a newly devised matrix tool. Findings highlighted a gap for an instrument with high utility for use at the clinical microsystem level of healthcare. Paper Five presents the development and preliminary psychometric testing of such an instrument; the Care Experience Feedback Improvement Tool (CEFIT). The thesis provides, as well as the matrix tool and CEFIT, theoretical and methodological contributions in the field of healthcare quality. It contributes to an aspiration that the patient’s voice can be heard and acknowledged, in order to direct improvements in the quality of hospital care.

The objective of the thesis was to evaluate the quality of diabetes care in the Canadian Forces by determining the extent to which physicians adhere to recommendations outlined in the 2008 Canadian Diabetes Association (CDA) clinical practice guidelines. In addition, the effect of patient age, sex, rank and size of base on quality of care was assessed and the accuracy of a diagnosis of diabetes in an extract of the electronic medical record (EMR) was evaluated. Fourteen bases within the Canadian Forces were selected for investigation, representing roughly half of the Canadian Forces population. Cases of diabetes were ascertained based on laboratory criteria following a chart review. Twenty-one CDA guideline recommendations were considered. The Canadian Forces demonstrated greater than 75% adherence with each of 9 recommendations, 50-75% adherence with each of 7 recommendations and less than 50% adherence with each of 5 recommendations. The overall adherence with all applicable recommendations per patient was 60.3% (SE 0.66). Age, sex, rank and size of base were not important factors influencing guideline adherence. The sensitivity of a diabetes diagnosis in an extract of the EMR was 84.5%, the specificity was 99.8%, the positive predictive value was 85.1% and the negative predictive value was 99.8%. This is similar to the performance of provincial and national diabetes registries. The quality of diabetes care in the Canadian Forces compared favourably with that of the civilian population within Canada and internationally. The creation of a diabetes registry is expected to lead to further improvements in diabetes care.

Quality of care is conceptualised by professionals and in policy documents as: compliance with ‘best practice’ guidelines; improving satisfaction rates; fiscal efficiency; and ethical care. ‘Quality’ in palliative and supportive district nursing care has been conceptualised in all these ways. However, the empirical research in this area draws mostly on professionals’ and carers’ views with little research addressing patients’ views. With political rhetoric pushing for a ‘patient led’ NHS, research into how patients conceptualise quality in this area is necessary to both critique this rhetoric and/or facilitate its aims. Therefore, this research investigates patients’ and carers’ views on the quality of palliative and supportive district nursing care.Participants were recruited to an exploratory qualitative study resulting in a convenience sample of twenty six patients (all of district nursing caseloads) and thirteen carers. All participants were over eighteen, able to consent, lived in their own homes, were under the care of district nurses, and had palliative care needs. Eighteen participants had a cancer diagnosis, six had a non-malignant diagnosis, one had co-morbidities, and one participant did not disclosed their diagnosis. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with all participants, five participants were interviewed twice. Post-structuralist theories were used with discourse analysis techniques for the final analysis.The findings identify three of the most influential discourses in relation to the morality and quality of care: Firstly, ‘busyness’, and how its performance by district nurses masks patients’ and carers’ ability to critique care, instead producing a pseudo-quality which fixes patients and carers subjectivities. Secondly, ‘power/knowledge’ and the ways in which it prevents patients and carers accessing care which they need, and altering care to suit their needs. Thirdly, ‘the home’ and how it (re)forms district nursing care and district nursing care (re)forms the home; meaning that actions by district nurses must also consider the impact on the home as well as the patients and carers. In conclusion quality care may be produced by: ceasing to measure quality; involving patients and carers with commissioning and directing palliative and supportive care; supporting groups other than district nurses such as patients, carers and third parties to produce and distribute knowledge about district nursing care; increasing patients’ and carers’ ability to communicate with one another about their care.Further research may investigate: how patients and carers with palliative and supportive care needs may be involved in commissioning; the most appropriate wording and means to distribute knowledge about palliative and supportive district nursing care; ethnographic work to explore how district nursing and the home interact; more detailed theorisation of how the material and the discursive can be accounted for within post-structuralism.

The aim of this thesis is to elaborate a strategic analysis of Masaryk Hospital in the city Jilemnice and evaluation of quality of care in this medical facility. Masaryk Hospital in Jilemnice city is located in the Giant Mountains region in the Liberec Region and is the largest organization run by the city Jilemnice. The health sector in the region is developing quite dynamically and is thus evident that although the hospital is a non-profit organization run by the city, operates in a market environment, especially due to relatively visible competitive struggle between hospitals in its vicinity. It is a facility offering comprehensive acute health care, which operates six other wards and outpatient department.

Depression is common and disproportionately affects those with chronic medical comorbidity, such as diabetes mellitus (DM). Only a limited amount of information is available concerning the quality of guideline-concordant treatment of depression and its influence on glycemic control among those with DM. This is the first study to address these issues in a veteran population with DM. This is a retrospective cohort study (1997-2005) of veterans with and without DM from the Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Indianapolis. Veterans with and without DM and a new episode of depression were identified. Administrative, clinical, and pharmacy data were linked to assess initiation of treatment, follow-up care, antidepressant dosage and duration, and change in antidepressant agent based on the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) clinical practice guidelines for depression. HbA1c levels were assessed following initiation of antidepressant therapy. Treatment of depression was not consistent with guideline recommendations. Only 60% of subjects received treatment within 30-days of the depression diagnosis. Veterans with DM were more likely to have received treatment within the first two weeks than veterans without DM. Few subjects received appropriate follow-up care for depression (<40%) or an adequate duration of antidepressant therapy (<9%), although most (88%) received a dosage consistent with guideline recommendations when treatment was provided. Most subjects (>75%) were treated with a serotonigenic agent and only 23% experienced a change in therapy during the treatment period, almost 84% of which received an adequate trial of therapy prior to the change or augmentation in agent. Presence of DM was associated with significantly increased odds for receipt of guideline-concordant care for depression in most multivariate analyses. Receipt of guideline-concordant care for depression was not a significant predictor of glycemic control but was associated with a clinically meaningful reduction of 0.5% in HbA1c levels. This research demonstrates that under-treatment of depression is common and may influence at least one medical outcome. Findings also support that the relationship between depression and DM is complex and that further research is necessary to help align current practice with evidence-based practices in the VHA.