Evaluation of a complex couplet care intervention in a neonatal intensive care unit: A mixed methods study protocol.

Background: Families with an infant in need of intensive care most often experience a harmful separation after birth. This is due to a division of medical specialties into neonatal care and maternal care. Therefore, a couplet care intervention is implemented for mother-infant dyads in a neonatal intensive care unit.

Denmark: Health System Review.

This analysis of the Danish health system reviews recent developments in organization and governance, health financing, health care provision, health reforms and health system performance. Population health in Denmark is good and improving, with life expectancy above the European Union (EU) average but is, however, lagging behind the other Nordic countries. Denmark has a universal and tax-financed health system, providing coverage for a comprehensive package of health services.

Nordic responses to Covid-19: Governance and policy measures in the early phases of the pandemic.

This paper explores and compares health system responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, in the context of existing governance features. Content compiled in the Covid-19 Health System Response Monitor combined with other publicly available country information serve as the foundation for this analysis. The analysis mainly covers early response until August 2020, but includes some key policy and epidemiological developments up until December 2020.

Inter-professional agreement and collaboration between extended scope physiotherapists and orthopaedic surgeons in an orthopaedic outpatient shoulder clinic - a mixed methods study.

Background: Extended scope physiotherapists (ESP) are increasingly supplementing orthopaedic surgeons (OS) in diagnosing patients with musculoskeletal disorders. Studies have reported satisfactory diagnostic and treatment agreement between ESPs and OSs, but methodological study quality is generally low, and only few studies have evaluated inter-professional collaboration. Our aims were: 1) to evaluate agreement on diagnosis and treatment plan between ESPs and OSs examining patients with shoulder disorders, 2) to explore and evaluate their inter-professional collaboration.

Evaluation of a policy to strengthen case management and quality of diabetes care in general practice in Denmark.

Objectives: To evaluate the utilization of a policy for strengthening general practitioner's case management and quality of care of diabetes patients in Denmark incentivized by a novel payment mode. We also want to elucidate any geographical variation or variation on the basis of practice features such as solo- or group practice, size of practice and age of the GP.

Methods: On the basis registers encompassing reimbursement data from GPs and practice specific information about geographical location (region), type of practice (solo- or group-practice), size of practice (number of patients listed) and age of the GP were are able to determine differences in use of the policy in relation to the practice-specific information.

Analytical perspectives on performance-based management: an outline of theoretical assumptions in the existing literature.

Performance-based management (PBM) has become a dominant form of governance in health care and there is a need for careful assessment of its function and effects. This article contains a cross-disciplinary literature synthesis of current studies of PBM. Literature was retrieved by database searches and categorized according to analytical differences and similarities concerning (1) purpose and (2) governance mechanism of PBM.

Denmark health system review.

Denmark has a tradition of a decentralized health system. However, during recent years, reforms and policy initiatives have gradually centralized the health system in different ways. The structural reform of 2007 merged the old counties into fewer bigger regions, and the old municipalities likewise.

Polypharmacy in general practice.

Introduction: Polypharmacy increases the risk of side effects and interactions. We quantified the prevalence of major polypharmacy (MPP) in a Danish county with 236,000 inhabitants, invited general practitioners (GPs) to participate in a quality improvement project and discussed the medication of 10-20 MPP patients selected by the participating GPs.

Material And Methods: This was a prospective registry study of all prescriptions of subsidized drugs in the third quarter of 2005 for all inhabitants living in Roskilde County, Denmark.

[Influencing the prescriptions of general practitioners via guidelines and feedback--secondary publication].

We investigated the effects of a multi-dimensional intervention on practice prescription patterns in five drug groups. The number of prescribed defined daily doses (DDDs) increased after the intervention, while potential savings/DDD decreased. The county's average cost/DDD fell to a level below the national average.

Patient reactions to hospital choice in Norway, Denmark, and Sweden.

This article is a comparative study of three Scandinavian countries--Norway, Denmark, and Sweden--all of which have provided the individual patient with extensive rights to choose the hospital where he/she wishes to receive treatment. In the paper, we present an analysis of the utilization of the opportunity to choose between hospitals in these three countries. The analysis addresses two questions: (i) How many patients are exercising the right to choose between hospitals in these countries and who is making use of this opportunity? (ii) How can we explain the observed utilization pattern? The results of the study reveal clear similarities between the three countries and suggest that few patients have actually chosen their hospital.

Changing GPs' prescription patterns through guidelines and feedback. Intervention study.

Purpose: To investigate whether and how a multi-dimensional intervention including clinical guidelines on the choice of medical treatment in the primary and the secondary health care sector, and individual feedback to general practices about their own and other practices' prescription patterns in five Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical classification system (ATC)-groups was followed by changes in the practices' prescription pattern.

Methods: Prospective historical registry study and a questionnaire study of GPs' self-reported use of guidelines and feedback.

Results: In every ATC-group the number of prescribed defined daily doses (DDDs) kept growing after the intervention, while potential savings by DDD decreased.

[Quality monitoring of colon surgeons' volume of operations].

Introduction: The number of operations performed by a surgeon is a predictor of the outcome of colon/rectum resection. Therefore it is relevant to monitor the surgeons' volume of work and the number of patients' complications in order to secure both an adequate number and high quality.

Materials And Methods: Using data from the Danish National Patient Registry and Danish Colon Cancer Group's database, we located hospital departments that had performed colon/rectum surgery in 2003 and asked them whether they monitored surgeons' volume of work and the number of patients' complications and whether they considered those data relevant to the patients or their GPs.

Why do not all hip- and knee patients facing long waiting times accept re-referral to hospitals with short waiting time? Questionnaire study.

Patients' preferences are often assumed to be homogeneous and to favour hospitals with a short waiting time and high quality. Due to long waiting times (6 months) for artificial hip or knee implantation a Danish county in 1999-2000 offered patients on a waiting list a choice between remaining on the local hospital's waiting list with the long waiting time, or re-referral to a hospital outside the county with a shorter waiting time. Fewer patients than expected took advantage of the offer of re-referral ("accepters"): 89 of 149 patients (60%).

[Distribution of colonic surgery among surgeons in the city of Copenhagen].

Introduction: The outcome of some surgical procedures is related to the surgeon's experience. We examined how much experience surgeons in 12 hospitals in the region of Copenhagen gained in colon surgery in 1999.

Material And Methods: The Ministry of Health identified the number of colon patients operated on in the region of Copenhagen in 1999.