Long-Term Impact of a Postdischarge Community Health Worker Intervention on Health Care Costs in a Safety-Net System.

Objective: Patient navigators (PNs) may represent a cost-effective strategy to improve transitional care and reduce hospital readmissions. We evaluated the impact of a PN intervention on health system costs in the 180 days after discharge for high-risk patients in a safety-net system.

Data Source/setting: Primary and secondary data from an academic safety-net health system.

Impact of a Patient Navigator Program on Hospital-Based and Outpatient Utilization Over 180 Days in a Safety-Net Health System.

Background: With emerging global payment structures, medical systems need to understand longer-term impacts of care transition strategies.

Objective: To determine the effect of a care transition program using patient navigators (PNs) on health service utilization among high-risk safety-net patients over a 180-day period.

Design: Randomized controlled trial conducted October 2011 through April 2013.

Treatment of Febrile illness with artemisinin combination therapy: prevalence and predictors in five African household surveys.

Objectives: To evaluate the determinants of compliance with national policies recommending Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT) for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in the community.

Methods: We used data from Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda national household surveys that were conducted with a standardized World Health Organization (WHO) methodology to measure access to and use of medicines. We analyzed all episodes of acute fever reported in the five surveys.

A Patient Navigator Intervention to Reduce Hospital Readmissions among High-Risk Safety-Net Patients: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Evidence-based interventions to reduce hospital readmissions may not generalize to resource-constrained safety-net hospitals.

Objective: To determine if an intervention by patient navigators (PNs), hospital-based Community Health Workers, reduces readmissions among high risk, low socioeconomic status patients.

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Evidence on access to medicines for chronic diseases from household surveys in five low- and middle-income countries.

The 2011 United Nations (UN) General Assembly Political Declaration on Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) brought NCDs to the global health agenda. Essential medicines are central to treating chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. Our study aimed to quantify access to essential medicines for people with chronic conditions in five low- and middle-income countries and to evaluate how household socioeconomic status and perceptions about medicines availability and affordability influence access.

Medicines coverage and community-based health insurance in low-income countries.

Objectives: The 2004 International Conference on Improving Use of Medicines recommended that emerging and expanding health insurances in low-income countries focus on improving access to and use of medicines. In recent years, Community-based Health Insurance (CHI) schemes have multiplied, with mounting evidence of their positive effects on financial protection and resource mobilization for healthcare in poor settings. Using literature review and qualitative interviews, this paper investigates whether and how CHI expands access to medicines in low-income countries.