Impact of pay-for-performance on hospital readmissions in Lebanon: an ARIMA-based intervention analysis using routine data.

Background: The objective of this paper was to estimate the impact of country-wide hospital pay-for-performance on readmissions for a set of common conditions in Lebanon.

Methods: This retrospective cohort study included all hospitalizations under the coverage of the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon between 2011 and 2019. We calculated 30-day all-cause readmissions following general, pneumonia, cholecystectomy and stroke cases.

Exploring patient perspectives: A qualitative inquiry into healthcare perceptions, experiences and satisfaction in Lebanon.

Background: Patient perspectives have received increasing importance within health systems over the past four decades. Measures of patient experience and satisfaction are commonly used. However, these measures do not capture all the information that is available through engaging with patients.

Effective strategies against COVID-19 and the importance of infection sequelae.

COVID-19 is a serious threat to human health and development. The acute burden of the pandemic includes more than 18.2 million deaths worldwide, and is unprecedented in modern times.

COVID-19 herd immunity in the absence of a vaccine: an irresponsible approach.

As severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) continues to spread rapidly throughout the human population, the concept of "herd immunity" has attracted the attention of both decision-makers and the general public. In the absence of a vaccine, this entails that a large proportion of the population will be infected to develop immunity that would limit the severity and/or extent of subsequent outbreaks. We argue that adopting such an approach should be avoided for several reasons.

Hospital performance and payment: impact of integrating pay-for-performance on healthcare effectiveness in Lebanon.

: In 2014 the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health integrated pay-for-performance into setting hospital reimbursement tiers, to provide hospitalization service coverage for the majority of the Lebanese population. This policy was intended to improve effectiveness by decreasing unnecessary hospitalizations, and improve fairness by including risk-adjustment in setting hospital performance scores. : We applied a systematic approach to assess the impact of the new policy on hospital performance.

Hospital Contracting Reforms: The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health Experience.

-Since 2009, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) in Lebanon has been going through a major reform initiative to improve its contracting system with private and public hospitals. The private sector is the main provider of hospital care in the country and the main contractor to the MoPH for the provision of curative care. As an "insurer of last resort," the MoPH plays an important role in providing hospital coverage to 53% of the population who lack coverage by private or public insurance schemes, through contractual arrangements with the private sector.

Observations on the Ministry of Public Health program of support to the hospitalization of patients in Lebanon.

Lebanon has a highly fragmented health care system. The Lebanese population receives its health care services through a system dominated by the private sector that is dependent to a large extent on public sector financing. Lebanon spends about 83% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on health.

Hospital accreditation, reimbursement and case mix: links and insights for contractual systems.

Background: Resource consumption is a widely used proxy for severity of illness, and is often measured through a case-mix index (CMI) based on Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs), which is commonly linked to payment. For countries that do not have DRGs it has been suggested to use CMIs derived from International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Our research objective was to use ICD-derived case-mix to evaluate whether or not the current accreditation-based hospital reimbursement system in Lebanon is appropriate.

Smoking behavior and sociodemographic differences among young people: further evidence from southern Sweden based on public health survey data.

Aims: Tobacco-smoking behaviours of young people between the age of 18 and 25 years are less understood than those of middle-aged people. The aim of this study is to contribute to improved knowledge of some of the factors that are associated with smoking and cessation among young people.

Methods: We use the most recently available public health survey data from the southern region of Skåne in Sweden to analyze these factors.

Identifying genetic traces of historical expansions: Phoenician footprints in the Mediterranean.

The Phoenicians were the dominant traders in the Mediterranean Sea two thousand to three thousand years ago and expanded from their homeland in the Levant to establish colonies and trading posts throughout the Mediterranean, but then they disappeared from history. We wished to identify their male genetic traces in modern populations. Therefore, we chose Phoenician-influenced sites on the basis of well-documented historical records and collected new Y-chromosomal data from 1330 men from six such sites, as well as comparative data from the literature.

Y-chromosomal diversity in Lebanon is structured by recent historical events.

Lebanon is an eastern Mediterranean country inhabited by approximately four million people with a wide variety of ethnicities and religions, including Muslim, Christian, and Druze. In the present study, 926 Lebanese men were typed with Y-chromosomal SNP and STR markers, and unusually, male genetic variation within Lebanon was found to be more strongly structured by religious affiliation than by geography. We therefore tested the hypothesis that migrations within historical times could have contributed to this situation.