Erratum: efficiency rates (Kirsten van Steenbergen-Weijenburg, 11 December 2012)
Unfortunately, inadvertently a printing error occurred in the calculation of the efficiency rates in Table 3 and in Table 4 in the article. Therefore, the efficiency rates were too low. The actual efficiency rates are higher. We apologize and offer the Erratum with correct efficiency rates for both Tables. The efficiency rates were not mentioned in the text and the change does not affect the primary outcomes and the conclusions that are discussed in the article. We apologize for the inconvenience.
Table 3:
Score ¿8 = Efficiency 65.5%
Score ¿9 = Efficiency 67.5%
Score ¿10 = Efficiency 69.5%
Score ¿11 = Efficiency 75.6%
Score ¿12 = Efficiency 79.2%
Table 4
PHQ 0-27 = Efficiency 81.7%
Score >10 = Efficiency 63.7%
read full comment
Associated article with the results in press (Matthias Briner, 05 October 2012)
The article with the results from the first monitoring of CRM in Switzerland is in press:
Briner, M., Manser, T. and Kessler, O. (2012). Clinical risk management in hospitals: Strategy, central coordination and dialogue as key enablers. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. in press.
You can find it in Pubmed: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22409240
read full comment
Comment on: Briner et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:337
Useful reference? (George Peat, 27 September 2012)
I read with interest your protocol and wondered if our previous trial of pharmacist review of osteoarthritis patients' medication would be of interest
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635605/
Best of luck with the study.
read full comment
Comment on: Tan et al. BMC Health Services Research, 12:246
The conclusion that competition caused improved satisfaction is flawed (Robert Grant, 01 June 2012)
The analyses carried out by Ikkersheim and Koolman are thorough and entirely appropriate, but the conclusion of this paper that competition and publication of satisfaction statistics caused improvements in patient satisfaction is far from justified. The conclusions are subject to four major...
read full comment
Pay for performance in disease management: a systematic review of the literature. (Lance Turtle, 17 February 2012)
This article by de Bruin et al. (1) addresses a critical research question, that is: do pay for performance (P4P) schemes in healthcare result in the delivery of better care? The stated aims in this review were: (i) to provide an overview of P4P schemes that are currently used to stimulate delivery of chronic care through disease management and (ii) to gain insights into the effects of P4P on healthcare quality and healthcare costs...
read full comment
Comment on: de Bruin et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:272
Productivity costs may not drop dramatically when CFS patients avail of current services (Tom Kindlon, 06 January 2012)
The authors appear to do a reasonable job, given the limits of the data available to them, in calculating the productivity costs before Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients reach the services in the UK. However, the reader is left with the impression that the productivity costs will drop dramatically once the patient reaches the services: "We had no data with which to assess the rate at which people with CFS/ME recover and return to work, either with or without specialized treatment. According to a systematic review of the literature, the proportion of adults in employment increased following interventions for CFS/ME (individualised rehabilitation, cognitive behavioural therapy and exercise therapy) and decreased in observational studies with no intervention [1]. Evidence from a recent...
read full comment
Comment on: Collin et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:217
Correction of errors in the manuscript (BARIDALYNE NONGKYNRIH, 21 December 2011)
Table 5 has some printing errors which may please be noted.
The salary in computerized system is INR 1,402,800, the Incremental cost in the salary is therefore INR (-)1,160,400. The total cost in computerized system is INR 1,644,217, and total incremental cost is INR (-) 924,283, which is equivalent to USD (-)19666.
read full comment
Comment on: Krishnan et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:310
Errors in manuscript (Kathleen Finlayson, 23 September 2011)
Please note the following two corrections to the manuscript: Under the 'Study Conditions' section: 1. under the 'exercise only follow-up intervention group' heading, the sentence should be 'Patients allocated to the exercise only follow-up intervention group will receive only the exercise component of the protocol, that is, protocol steps 2, 3 and 7. 2. uncer the 'in-home telephone follow-up only intervention group' heading, the sentence should read ‘Patients allocated to the in-home/telephone follow-up only intervention group will receive only the APGN component of the protocol, that is, protocol steps 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.' read full comment
Comment on: Courtney et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:202
Errors in Table 1 (Jay Shen, 21 September 2011)
In Table 1, standardized deviation (SD) is missing in one row, that is:
Comment on: Shen et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:212
A useful approach.. (Martha Ann Carey, 13 September 2011)
A very interesting article, and an interesting use of latent class.
read full comment
Comment on: Thorpe et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:181
Updated additional data file available from the authors (Jeffrey Winters, 22 June 2011)
An updated "additional data file" is available from the authors that includes updated reimbursement data released by CMS in April of 2011. The data file allows readers to input their local data and perform an analysis. Please contact me, as the corresponding author, via email to request the updated additional data file.
read full comment
Comment on: Winters et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:101
Comparing the performances of comorbidity adjustments with and without inclusion of ‘prior hospitalizations’ data (Mansour Taghavi Azar Sharabiani, 22 June 2011)
Based on the C-statistics summarised in Table 3, it seems that the inclusion of 'prior hospitalizations' in the 'index hospitalisation' data results in significant improvements to the predictability of the models that are adjusted for comorbidities (i.e. Baseline model + Charlson/Deyo, Charlson/Romano, or Elixhauser). However, it is possible that these improvements are confounded by the potential improvements to the predictability of the baseline model itself. Thus, the improvements to the predictability could be independent of the performances of the comorbidity adjustment techniques. This issue cannot be settled based on the current results as it seems that the authors have provided only the C-statstics that are related to the predictability of the baseline model for the ‘Index...
read full comment
Comment on: Chu et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:140
Correction by author (Ingibjörg Hjaltadottir, 17 June 2011)
Reference no 20 should be the same as no 40: Morris JN, Fries BE, Morris SA: Scaling ADLs within the MDS.Journal of Gerontology A Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 1999, 54:M546-553.
There is a missing line in table 3 under the heading Index of Social Engagement: Scale:5-6 Gender:Female Died during years 1-3 n (%):87 (35.7) Lived longer than 3 years: 157 Total n:244 read full comment
Correction to the Table 4 (typos) (Liana Martirosyan, 07 December 2010)
All percentages of prescribing quality scores presented in the table 4 are calculated and shown correctly. However, there have been two typos made in the last steps of manuscript peer-reveiw when providing additional information requested by the reviewers. We apologize for not noticing this earlier.
1.The numerators and denominators for the scores of PQI-1 based on diagnostic codes and clinical measurement are swapped: 93(90-95)numerator and denominator should be:905/984 81(78-83)numerator and denominator should be:1412/1749
2.The numerator for the PQI-3 Prescription of metformin in overweight T2DM patients: should read 139 and not 39: 65(59-72),139/213.
Reply to comments: Confirmative factor analysis (CFA), not explorative factor analysis (EFA), would have been more appropriate to examined the applicability of facture structure of the Norwegian translation of the HSOPS (Arvid Steinar Haugen, 16 November 2010)
On the behalf of the authors I would like to thank professor Kim Lyngby Mikkelsen for his thoughtful comments. In our work with exploring the safety climate factors of this surgical environment, we also understand the need for a structural equation model (SEM) test of the 12-factor model and the hypothesised structural relationship between the factors of the HSOPS. This is to be addressed in a follow up study of this surgical environment
read full comment
Comment on: Haugen et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:279
Patients' experiences of medical tourism: A response to Sohini (Valorie Crooks, 13 October 2010)
We, the authors, are thankful to Sohini Banerjee for providing very thoughtful comments on our scoping review. The inclusion of a forum for readers to post comments about published BMC articles is a wonderful way for authors to understand how others are interpreting their findings. Since this forum for comments exists, we wanted to take the opportunity to provide a brief response in relation to particular points raised by Sohini. Our responses are noted in italics.
Sohini states: Inclusion of patients’ experiences travelling from middle-and low-income countries for medical tourism to industrialised nations would have provided a broader perspective of medical tourism. Restricting reports of patients’ experiences travelling from industrialised nations...
read full comment
Comment on: Crooks et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:266
Confirmative factor analysis (CFA), not explorative factor analysis (EFA), would have been more appropriate to examined the applicability of facture structure of the Norwegian translation of the HSOPS (Kim Lyngby Mikkelsen, 13 October 2010)
The authors used explorative factor analysis (EFA) to examine the applicability of the HSOPS factor structure in operating theatre settings. EFA is used to explore the possible underlying factor structure of a set of observed variables without imposing a preconceived structure on the outcome. By performing EFA, the underlying factor structure is identified. However, the factor structure of HSOPS is already known.
CFA is used to verify the factor structure of a set of observed variables. CFA allows the researcher to test the hypothesis that a relationship between observed variables and their underlying latent constructs exists. Therefore using CFA, the hypothesised facture structure of HSOPS could have been confirmed.
Comment on: Haugen et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:279
The expanding universe of medical tourism (Sohini Banerjee, 04 October 2010)
The expanding universe of Medical Tourism
Medical tourism is emerging as an important socio-medical issue, especially in an era marked by increased globalisation. The field of medical tourism has expanded considerably in recent years and serious debates on medical economics and ethics have emerged as a result of it. Hence, the research by Crooks et al (What is known about the patients’ experience of medical tourism? A scoping review) is not only very timely but also focuses on a range of issues, important to public health, which has not been discussed earlier. The study provides a comprehensive view of patients’ experiences of medical tourism and sheds light on various dimensions of medical tourism, which adds to the knowledge on this important public health...
read full comment
Comment on: Crooks et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:266
Rand Study Response from NCQA (Apoorva Stull, 27 July 2010)
To the Editor:
The recent study by Adams et al entitled Incorporating statistical uncertainty in the use of physician cost profiles adds significant information to our understanding of reliability related to the use of measures of cost and resource use in physician practices. NCQA agrees overall with their conclusion that setting standards for reliability of physician cost profiles is important. We developed NCQA’s Physician and Hospital Quality (PHQ) certification program, which aligns with standards for physician level measurement set forth in the Patient Charter for Physician Measurement of the Consumer Purchaser Disclosure Project. This charter resulted from the 2008 New York Attorney General’s settlement of court action with health plans over their doctor...
read full comment
Comment on: Adams et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:57
Comments regarding cost-effectiveness of POC monitoring in general practice (Leanne Stafford, 22 July 2010)
To the Editor,
Having conducted several projects utilising point-of-care (POC) INR monitors in a variety of settings over recent years (1-5)*, we read with interest Caroline Laurence’s paper. With international studies having yielded conflicting results regarding the economic feasibility of POC testing, we had hoped that this study would offer some clarity in an Australian context. Unfortunately, given the acknowledged limitations and the fact that the data are now over three years old, we are hesitant to place too much emphasis on its findings.
We have three major concerns regarding the findings of this study. The first relates to the health outcome indicator chosen for the cost-effective analysis. The proportion of patients within the therapeutic...
read full comment
Comment on: Laurence et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:165
Limitation (Andrea Roalfe, 14 January 2010)
The calculations of the logistic method detailed in the paper [1] are appropriate when the factor-specific event rates of the local population are not too dissimilar. We have found that when these rates are very heterogeneous, weighting the logits to give a standardised rate will give an unreliable estimate of the standardised rate. We propose that in such cases the estimated probabilities (of disease) derived from the logistic regression model, are weighted by the standard area populations to obtain the standardised rate. The corresponding approximate standard error of the standardised rate being a function of the estimated probabilities and logits. The downside of weighting the probabilities rather than the logits sometimes results in the lower confidence limit being negative. However...
read full comment
Comment on: Roalfe et al. BMC Health Services Research, 8:275
Statins in the over 65 year olds are malpractice. (eddie vos, 31 December 2009)
In this mean age 77.5 Nova Scotian population, the authors suggest a 26% reduced mortality in those being prescribed a statin upon hospital discharge. Such prescriptions evidently select the higher cholesterol group, UN-selecting those in the lowest quartile for cholesterol. It is in that low-cholesterol group that we always find the highest mortality rate in a general population over age 50, most elegantly shown in the massive Vorarlberg Study(1).
Moreover, the authors misrepresent the PROSPER study in their ref. #10, suggesting statin provided a mortality benefit in a group of mean 75.4 year olds at baseline. In fact, the mortality vs placebo was identical +/- 0.1%.
Finally, we know from 2 meta-analysis that statins do not extend female lives or prevent...
read full comment
Comment on: Cooke et al. BMC Health Services Research, 9:198
The inclusion of more quotes and qualitative information in the paper would have been useful (Tom Kindlon, 11 August 2009)
I think this is an interesting issue.
However I think the paper would have benefited from quotes from what the participants said and generally more qualitative information. If healthcare providers are to improve on the situation, they need as much information as they can get about what exactly are the barriers. In particular, I feel more qualitative information on "Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs (KABs)" and "Healthcare System" would have been useful.
Perhaps the data could be used to write another paper.
By the way, I find the use of the phrase (and acronym) "while those with insufficient fatigue (ISF)" in the abstract to be far from satisfactory. It seems to put fatigue onto a pedestal as the primary part of the definition of CFS. People for...
read full comment
Comment on: Lin et al. BMC Health Services Research, 9:13
The calculation of the Belgian General Practitioner revised (Madelon Kroneman, 21 April 2009)
Income development of General Practitioners in eight European countries from 1975 to 2005: The calculation of the Belgian General Practitioner revised. M. Kroneman, P. Meeus, J. van der Zee and W. Groot
(M.Kroneman, J. van der Zee and W. Groot are the authors of the original paper, P. Meeus is affiliated to RIZIV/INAMI, the Belgium Institute of Illness and Disability Insurances).
In the paper ‘Income development of General Practitioners in eight European countries from 1975 to 2005, published in BMC Health Services Research in January 2009, the income of Belgian GPs appeared to be the lowest of the eight countries (Kroneman, Van der Zee and Groot, 2009). In the conclusion of the paper, the question was raised whether the figure for Belgium was...
read full comment
Comment on: Kroneman et al. BMC Health Services Research, 9:26
RSS
Latest comments
Erratum: efficiency rates (Kirsten van Steenbergen-Weijenburg, 11 December 2012)
Unfortunately, inadvertently a printing error occurred in the calculation of the efficiency rates in Table 3 and in Table 4 in the article. Therefore, the efficiency rates were too low. The actual efficiency rates are higher. We apologize and offer the Erratum with correct efficiency rates for both Tables. The efficiency rates were not mentioned in the text and the change does not affect the primary outcomes and the conclusions that are discussed in the article. We apologize for the inconvenience. Table 3: Score ¿8 = Efficiency 65.5% Score ¿9 = Efficiency 67.5% Score ¿10 = Efficiency 69.5% Score ¿11 = Efficiency 75.6% Score ¿12 = Efficiency 79.2% Table 4 PHQ 0-27 = Efficiency 81.7% Score >10 = Efficiency 63.7% read full comment
Comment on: van Steenbergen-Weijenburg et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:235
Associated article with the results in press (Matthias Briner, 05 October 2012)
The article with the results from the first monitoring of CRM in Switzerland is in press: Briner, M., Manser, T. and Kessler, O. (2012). Clinical risk management in hospitals: Strategy, central coordination and dialogue as key enablers. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice. in press. You can find it in Pubmed: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22409240 read full comment
Comment on: Briner et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:337
Useful reference? (George Peat, 27 September 2012)
I read with interest your protocol and wondered if our previous trial of pharmacist review of osteoarthritis patients' medication would be of interest
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1635605/
Best of luck with the study. read full comment
Comment on: Tan et al. BMC Health Services Research, 12:246
The conclusion that competition caused improved satisfaction is flawed (Robert Grant, 01 June 2012)
The analyses carried out by Ikkersheim and Koolman are thorough and entirely appropriate, but the conclusion of this paper that competition and publication of satisfaction statistics caused improvements in patient satisfaction is far from justified. The conclusions are subject to four major... read full comment
Comment on: Ikkersheim et al. BMC Health Services Research, 12:76
There are some typographical errors in table 5 (ketkesone Phrasisombath, 27 March 2012)
There are some typographical errors in table 5 and the corrections should be as follows:
Main source of information among those who had or had not sought treatment for RTI/STI
Yes (sought)
Boyfriends n=13 (5.5%)
TV n=2 (0.8%)
No (had not sought)
HCP during the visit n=11 (9.6%)
Boyfriends n=5 (4.3%)
TV n=5 (4.3%)
Radio n=1 (0.9%) read full comment
Comment on: Phrasisombath et al. BMC Health Services Research, 12:37
Pay for performance in disease management: a systematic review of the literature. (Lance Turtle, 17 February 2012)
This article by de Bruin et al. (1) addresses a critical research question, that is: do pay for performance (P4P) schemes in healthcare result in the delivery of better care? The stated aims in this review were: (i) to provide an overview of P4P schemes that are currently used to stimulate delivery of chronic care through disease management and (ii) to gain insights into the effects of P4P on healthcare quality and healthcare costs... read full comment
Comment on: de Bruin et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:272
Productivity costs may not drop dramatically when CFS patients avail of current services (Tom Kindlon, 06 January 2012)
The authors appear to do a reasonable job, given the limits of the data available to them, in calculating the productivity costs before Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) patients reach the services in the UK. However, the reader is left with the impression that the productivity costs will drop dramatically once the patient reaches the services: "We had no data with which to assess the rate at which people with CFS/ME recover and return to work, either with or without specialized treatment. According to a systematic review of the literature, the proportion of adults in employment increased following interventions for CFS/ME (individualised rehabilitation, cognitive behavioural therapy and exercise therapy) and decreased in observational studies with no intervention [1]. Evidence from a recent... read full comment
Comment on: Collin et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:217
Correction of errors in the manuscript (BARIDALYNE NONGKYNRIH, 21 December 2011)
Table 5 has some printing errors which may please be noted.
The salary in computerized system is INR 1,402,800, the Incremental cost in the salary is therefore INR (-)1,160,400. The total cost in computerized system is INR 1,644,217, and total incremental cost is INR (-) 924,283, which is equivalent to USD (-)19666. read full comment
Comment on: Krishnan et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:310
Errors in manuscript (Kathleen Finlayson, 23 September 2011)
Please note the following two corrections to the manuscript:
Under the 'Study Conditions' section:
1. under the 'exercise only follow-up intervention group' heading, the sentence should be 'Patients allocated to the exercise only follow-up intervention group will receive only the exercise component of the protocol, that is, protocol steps 2, 3 and 7.
2. uncer the 'in-home telephone follow-up only intervention group' heading, the sentence should read ‘Patients allocated to the in-home/telephone follow-up only intervention group will receive only the APGN component of the protocol, that is, protocol steps 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10.'
read full comment
Comment on: Courtney et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:202
Errors in Table 1 (Jay Shen, 21 September 2011)
In Table 1, standardized deviation (SD) is missing in one row, that is:
"Number of staffed beds, mean(SD) 176 210 34 413 467 54"
should be:
"Number of staffed beds, mean (SD) 176(14) 210(18) 34 413(20) 467(29) 54"
read full comment
Comment on: Shen et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:212
A useful approach.. (Martha Ann Carey, 13 September 2011)
A very interesting article, and an interesting use of latent class. read full comment
Comment on: Thorpe et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:181
Updated additional data file available from the authors (Jeffrey Winters, 22 June 2011)
An updated "additional data file" is available from the authors that includes updated reimbursement data released by CMS in April of 2011. The data file allows readers to input their local data and perform an analysis. Please contact me, as the corresponding author, via email to request the updated additional data file. read full comment
Comment on: Winters et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:101
Comparing the performances of comorbidity adjustments with and without inclusion of ‘prior hospitalizations’ data (Mansour Taghavi Azar Sharabiani, 22 June 2011)
Based on the C-statistics summarised in Table 3, it seems that the inclusion of 'prior hospitalizations' in the 'index hospitalisation' data results in significant improvements to the predictability of the models that are adjusted for comorbidities (i.e. Baseline model + Charlson/Deyo, Charlson/Romano, or Elixhauser). However, it is possible that these improvements are confounded by the potential improvements to the predictability of the baseline model itself. Thus, the improvements to the predictability could be independent of the performances of the comorbidity adjustment techniques. This issue cannot be settled based on the current results as it seems that the authors have provided only the C-statstics that are related to the predictability of the baseline model for the ‘Index... read full comment
Comment on: Chu et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:140
Correction by author (Ingibjörg Hjaltadottir, 17 June 2011)
Reference no 20 should be the same as no 40:
Morris JN, Fries BE, Morris SA: Scaling ADLs within the MDS.Journal of Gerontology A Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences 1999, 54:M546-553.
There is a missing line in table 3 under the heading Index of Social Engagement:
Scale:5-6
Gender:Female
Died during years 1-3 n (%):87 (35.7)
Lived longer than 3 years: 157
Total n:244
read full comment
Comment on: Hjaltadóttir et al. BMC Health Services Research, 11:86
Correction to the Table 4 (typos) (Liana Martirosyan, 07 December 2010)
All percentages of prescribing quality scores presented in the table 4 are calculated and shown correctly. However, there have been two typos made in the last steps of manuscript peer-reveiw when providing additional information requested by the reviewers. We apologize for not noticing this earlier.
1.The numerators and denominators for the scores of PQI-1 based on diagnostic codes and clinical measurement are swapped:
93(90-95)numerator and denominator should be:905/984
81(78-83)numerator and denominator should be:1412/1749
2.The numerator for the PQI-3 Prescription of metformin in overweight T2DM patients: should read 139 and not 39: 65(59-72),139/213.
read full comment
Comment on: Martirosyan et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:137
Reply to comments: Confirmative factor analysis (CFA), not explorative factor analysis (EFA), would have been more appropriate to examined the applicability of facture structure of the Norwegian translation of the HSOPS (Arvid Steinar Haugen, 16 November 2010)
On the behalf of the authors I would like to thank professor Kim Lyngby Mikkelsen for his thoughtful comments. In our work with exploring the safety climate factors of this surgical environment, we also understand the need for a structural equation model (SEM) test of the 12-factor model and the hypothesised structural relationship between the factors of the HSOPS. This is to be addressed in a follow up study of this surgical environment read full comment
Comment on: Haugen et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:279
Patients' experiences of medical tourism: A response to Sohini (Valorie Crooks, 13 October 2010)
We, the authors, are thankful to Sohini Banerjee for providing very thoughtful comments on our scoping review. The inclusion of a forum for readers to post comments about published BMC articles is a wonderful way for authors to understand how others are interpreting their findings. Since this forum for comments exists, we wanted to take the opportunity to provide a brief response in relation to particular points raised by Sohini. Our responses are noted in italics.
Sohini states: Inclusion of patients’ experiences travelling from middle-and low-income countries for medical tourism to industrialised nations would have provided a broader perspective of medical tourism. Restricting reports of patients’ experiences travelling from industrialised nations... read full comment
Comment on: Crooks et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:266
Confirmative factor analysis (CFA), not explorative factor analysis (EFA), would have been more appropriate to examined the applicability of facture structure of the Norwegian translation of the HSOPS (Kim Lyngby Mikkelsen, 13 October 2010)
The authors used explorative factor analysis (EFA) to examine the applicability of the HSOPS factor structure in operating theatre settings. EFA is used to explore the possible underlying factor structure of a set of observed variables without imposing a preconceived structure on the outcome. By performing EFA, the underlying factor structure is identified. However, the factor structure of HSOPS is already known.
CFA is used to verify the factor structure of a set of observed variables. CFA allows the researcher to test the hypothesis that a relationship between observed variables and their underlying latent constructs exists. Therefore using CFA, the hypothesised facture structure of HSOPS could have been confirmed.
EFA or CFA, - does it matter?
Using the... read full comment
Comment on: Haugen et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:279
The expanding universe of medical tourism (Sohini Banerjee, 04 October 2010)
The expanding universe of Medical Tourism
Medical tourism is emerging as an important socio-medical issue, especially in an era marked by increased globalisation. The field of medical tourism has expanded considerably in recent years and serious debates on medical economics and ethics have emerged as a result of it. Hence, the research by Crooks et al (What is known about the patients’ experience of medical tourism? A scoping review) is not only very timely but also focuses on a range of issues, important to public health, which has not been discussed earlier. The study provides a comprehensive view of patients’ experiences of medical tourism and sheds light on various dimensions of medical tourism, which adds to the knowledge on this important public health... read full comment
Comment on: Crooks et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:266
Rand Study Response from NCQA (Apoorva Stull, 27 July 2010)
To the Editor:
The recent study by Adams et al entitled Incorporating statistical uncertainty in the use of physician cost profiles adds significant information to our understanding of reliability related to the use of measures of cost and resource use in physician practices. NCQA agrees overall with their conclusion that setting standards for reliability of physician cost profiles is important. We developed NCQA’s Physician and Hospital Quality (PHQ) certification program, which aligns with standards for physician level measurement set forth in the Patient Charter for Physician Measurement of the Consumer Purchaser Disclosure Project. This charter resulted from the 2008 New York Attorney General’s settlement of court action with health plans over their doctor... read full comment
Comment on: Adams et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:57
Comments regarding cost-effectiveness of POC monitoring in general practice (Leanne Stafford, 22 July 2010)
To the Editor,
Having conducted several projects utilising point-of-care (POC) INR monitors in a variety of settings over recent years (1-5)*, we read with interest Caroline Laurence’s paper. With international studies having yielded conflicting results regarding the economic feasibility of POC testing, we had hoped that this study would offer some clarity in an Australian context. Unfortunately, given the acknowledged limitations and the fact that the data are now over three years old, we are hesitant to place too much emphasis on its findings.
We have three major concerns regarding the findings of this study. The first relates to the health outcome indicator chosen for the cost-effective analysis. The proportion of patients within the therapeutic... read full comment
Comment on: Laurence et al. BMC Health Services Research, 10:165
Limitation (Andrea Roalfe, 14 January 2010)
The calculations of the logistic method detailed in the paper [1] are appropriate when the factor-specific event rates of the local population are not too dissimilar. We have found that when these rates are very heterogeneous, weighting the logits to give a standardised rate will give an unreliable estimate of the standardised rate. We propose that in such cases the estimated probabilities (of disease) derived from the logistic regression model, are weighted by the standard area populations to obtain the standardised rate. The corresponding approximate standard error of the standardised rate being a function of the estimated probabilities and logits. The downside of weighting the probabilities rather than the logits sometimes results in the lower confidence limit being negative. However... read full comment
Comment on: Roalfe et al. BMC Health Services Research, 8:275
Statins in the over 65 year olds are malpractice. (eddie vos, 31 December 2009)
In this mean age 77.5 Nova Scotian population, the authors suggest a 26% reduced mortality in those being prescribed a statin upon hospital discharge. Such prescriptions evidently select the higher cholesterol group, UN-selecting those in the lowest quartile for cholesterol. It is in that low-cholesterol group that we always find the highest mortality rate in a general population over age 50, most elegantly shown in the massive Vorarlberg Study(1).
Moreover, the authors misrepresent the PROSPER study in their ref. #10, suggesting statin provided a mortality benefit in a group of mean 75.4 year olds at baseline. In fact, the mortality vs placebo was identical +/- 0.1%.
Finally, we know from 2 meta-analysis that statins do not extend female lives or prevent... read full comment
Comment on: Cooke et al. BMC Health Services Research, 9:198
The inclusion of more quotes and qualitative information in the paper would have been useful (Tom Kindlon, 11 August 2009)
I think this is an interesting issue.
However I think the paper would have benefited from quotes from what the participants said and generally more qualitative information. If healthcare providers are to improve on the situation, they need as much information as they can get about what exactly are the barriers. In particular, I feel more qualitative information on "Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs (KABs)" and "Healthcare System" would have been useful.
Perhaps the data could be used to write another paper.
By the way, I find the use of the phrase (and acronym) "while those with insufficient fatigue (ISF)" in the abstract to be far from satisfactory. It seems to put fatigue onto a pedestal as the primary part of the definition of CFS. People for... read full comment
Comment on: Lin et al. BMC Health Services Research, 9:13
The calculation of the Belgian General Practitioner revised (Madelon Kroneman, 21 April 2009)
Income development of General Practitioners in eight European countries from 1975 to 2005: The calculation of the Belgian General Practitioner revised.
M. Kroneman, P. Meeus, J. van der Zee and W. Groot
(M.Kroneman, J. van der Zee and W. Groot are the authors of the original paper, P. Meeus is affiliated to RIZIV/INAMI, the Belgium Institute of Illness and Disability Insurances).
In the paper ‘Income development of General Practitioners in eight European countries from 1975 to 2005, published in BMC Health Services Research in January 2009, the income of Belgian GPs appeared to be the lowest of the eight countries (Kroneman, Van der Zee and Groot, 2009). In the conclusion of the paper, the question was raised whether the figure for Belgium was... read full comment
Comment on: Kroneman et al. BMC Health Services Research, 9:26