Perceived Benefits and Challenges of Ebola Preparation Among Hospitals in Developed Countries: A Systematic Literature Review.

The 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic in West Africa provided an opportunity to improve our response to highly infectious diseases. We performed a systematic literature review in PubMed, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, EMBASE, and Web of Science of research articles that evaluated benefits and challenges of hospital Ebola preparation in developed countries. We excluded studies performed in non-developed countries, and those limited to primary care settings, the public health sector, and pediatric populations.

Impact of Race on Immunization Status in Long-Term Care Facilities.

Objectives: This study examined the relationship between resident race and immunization status in long-term care facilities (LTCFs). Race was captured at the resident and the facility racial composition level.

Design: Thirty-six long-term care facilities varying in racial composition and size were selected for site visits.

Trends in Results of HBIPS National Performance Measures and Association With Year of Adoption.

Objective: Multiple studies demonstrate a consistent pattern of improvement on quality measures among health care organizations after they begin collecting and reporting data. This study compared results on psychiatric performance measures among cohorts of hospitals with different characteristics that elected to begin reporting on the measures at various points in time.

Methods: Quarterly reporting of Hospital-Based Inpatient Psychiatric Services (HBIPS) measures to the Joint Commission was used to examine trends in performance among four hospital cohorts that began reporting in 2009 (N=243), 2011 (N=139), 2014 (N=137), or 2015 (N=372).

Ebola Preparedness Resources for Acute-Care Hospitals in the United States: A Cross-Sectional Study of Costs, Benefits, and Challenges.

OBJECTIVE To assess resource allocation and costs associated with US hospitals preparing for the possible spread of the 2014-2015 Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic in the United States. METHODS A survey was sent to a stratified national probability sample (n=750) of US general medical/surgical hospitals selected from the American Hospital Association (AHA) list of hospitals. The survey was also sent to all children's general hospitals listed by the AHA (n=60).

Patient Attitudes Toward Orthopedic Surgeon Ownership of Related Ancillary Businesses.

Background: Physician ownership of businesses related to orthopedic surgery, such as surgery centers, has been criticized as potentially leading to misuse of health care resources. The purpose of this study was to determine patients' attitudes toward surgeon ownership of orthopedic-related businesses.

Methods: We surveyed 280 consecutive patients at 2 centers regarding their attitudes toward surgeon ownership of orthopedic-related businesses using an anonymous questionnaire.

US Physicians' Opinions about Distinctions between Withdrawing and Withholding Life-Sustaining Treatment.

Decisions to withhold or withdraw life-sustaining treatment (LST) precede the majority of ICU deaths. Although professional guidelines generally treat the two as ethically equivalent, evidence suggests withdrawing LST is often more psychologically difficult than withholding it. The aim of the experiment was to investigate whether physicians are more supportive of withholding LST than withdrawing it and to assess how physicians' opinions are shaped by their religious characteristics, specialty, and experience caring for dying patients.

Are Financial Conflicts of Interest for the Surgeon A Source of Concern for the Patient?

We surveyed 269 consecutive patients (81% response rate) with an anonymous questionnaire to assess their attitudes toward conflicts-of-interest (COIs) resulting from three financial relationships between orthopedic surgeons and orthopedic industry: (1) being paid as a consultant; (2) receiving research funding; (3) receiving product design royalties. The majority perceived these relationships favorably, with 75% agreeing that surgeons in such relationships are top experts in the field and two-thirds agreeing that surgeons engage in such relationships to serve patients better. Patients viewed surgeons who designed products more favorably than those who are consultants (P=0.

Psychiatrists' and primary care physicians' beliefs about overtreatment of depression and anxiety.

Critics say that physicians overdiagnose and overtreat depression and anxiety. We surveyed 1504 primary care physicians (PCPs) and 512 psychiatrists, measuring beliefs about overtreatment of depression and anxiety and predictions of whether persons would benefit from taking medication, investing in relationships, and investing in spiritual life. A total of 63% of PCPs and 64% of psychiatrists responded.

Limits and responsibilities of physicians addressing spiritual suffering in terminally ill patients.

Context: Many patients experience spiritual suffering that complicates their physical suffering at the end of life. It remains unclear what physicians' perceived responsibilities are for responding to patients' spiritual suffering.

Objectives: To investigate U.

Physician race and treatment preferences for depression, anxiety, and medically unexplained symptoms.

Objectives: Studies have repeatedly shown racial and ethnic differences in mental health care. Prior research focused on relationships between patient preferences and ethnicity, with little attention given to the possible relationship between physicians' ethnicity and their treatment recommendations.

Design: A questionnaire was mailed to a national sample of US primary care physicians and psychiatrists.

The prevalence of medical student mistreatment and its association with burnout.

Purpose: Medical student mistreatment has been recognized for decades and is known to adversely impact students personally and professionally. Similarly, burnout has been shown to negatively impact students. This study assesses the prevalence of student mistreatment across multiple medical schools and characterizes the association between mistreatment and burnout.

General internists' preferences and knowledge about the care of adult survivors of childhood cancer: a cross-sectional survey.

Background: Adult childhood cancer survivors (CCSs) are at high risk for illness and premature death. Little is known about the physicians who provide their routine medical care.

Objective: To determine general internists' self-reported attitudes and knowledge about the care of CCSs.

The Influence of Surrogate Decision Makers on Clinical Decision Making for Critically Ill Adults.

Purpose: Intensive care unit patients rarely have decisional capacity and often surrogates make clinical decisions on their behalf. Little is known about how surrogate characteristics may influence end-of-life decision making for these patients. This study sought to determine how surrogate characteristics impact physicians' approach to end-of-life decision making.

Primary care physicians' and psychiatrists' willingness to refer to religious mental health providers.

Background: Recent decades have witnessed some integration of mental health care and religious resources.

Aim: We measured primary care physicians' (PCPs) and psychiatrists' knowledge of religious mental health-care providers, and their willingness to refer there.

Methods: A national survey of PCPs and psychiatrists was conducted, using vignettes of depressed and anxious patients.

Directive counsel and morally controversial medical decision-making: findings from two national surveys of primary care physicians.

Background: Because of the potential to unduly influence patients' decisions, some ethicists counsel physicians to be nondirective when negotiating morally controversial medical decisions.

Objective: To determine whether primary care providers (PCPs) are less likely to endorse directive counsel for morally controversial medical decisions than for typical ones and to identify predictors of endorsing directive counsel in such situations.

Design And Participants: Surveys were mailed to two separate national samples of practicing primary care physicians.

"Righteous minds" in health care: measurement and explanatory value of social intuitionism in accounting for the moral judgments in a sample of U.S. physicians.

The broad diversity in physicians' judgments on controversial health care topics may reflect differences in religious characteristics, political ideologies, and moral intuitions. We tested an existing measure of moral intuitions in a new population (U.S.

Providing guidance to patients: physicians' views about the relative responsibilities of doctors and religious communities.

Objectives: Patients' religious communities often influence their medical decisions. To date, no study has examined what physicians think about the responsibilities borne by religious communities to provide guidance to patients in different clinical contexts.

Methods: We mailed a confidential, self-administered survey to a stratified random sample of 1504 US primary care physicians (PCPs).

Substituted judgment in principle and practice: a national physician survey.

Objective: To describe the extent to which US physicians endorse substituted judgments in principle or accommodate them in practice.

Patients And Methods: We surveyed a stratified, random sample of 2016 physicians by mail from June 25, 2010, to September 3, 2010. Primary outcome measures were agreement with 2 in-principle statements about substituted judgment and, after an experimental vignette that varied the basis used by a patient's surrogate to refuse life-saving treatment, responses indicating how appropriate it would be to overrule the surrogate's decision.

Religion and beliefs about treating medically unexplained symptoms: a survey of primary care physicians and psychiatrists.

Objective: Historical evidence and prior research suggest that psychiatry is biased against religion, and religious physicians are biased against the mental health professions. Here we examine whether religious and non-religious physicians differ in their treatment recommendations for a patient with medically unexplained symptoms.

Method: We conducted a national survey of primary care physicians and psychiatrists.

Religion and United States physicians' opinions and self-predicted practices concerning artificial nutrition and hydration.

This study surveyed 1,156 practicing US physicians to examine the relationship between physicians' religious characteristics and their approaches to artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH). Forty percent of physicians believed that unless a patient is imminently dying, the patient should always receive nutrition and fluids; 75 % believed that it is ethically permissible for doctors to withdraw ANH. The least religious physicians were less likely to oppose withholding or withdrawing ANH.

Physicians' Beliefs about the nature of addiction: a survey of primary care physicians and psychiatrists.

Background And Objectives: Society debates whether addiction is a disease, a response to psychological woundedness, or moral failing.

Method: We surveyed a national sample of 1427 US primary care physicians (PCPs) and 487 psychiatrists, asking "In your judgment, to what extent is alcoholism/drug addiction each of the following? A) a disease B) a response to psychological woundedness C) a result of moral failings."

Results: The response rate was 63% for PCPs and 64% for psychiatrists.

Religion and anxiety treatments in primary care patients.

Earlier data suggested that religious physicians are less likely to refer to a psychiatrist or psychologist. This follow-up study measures how religious beliefs affect anxiety treatments in primary care. We surveyed US primary care physicians and psychiatrists using a vignette of a patient with anxiety symptoms.

Intentional sedation to unconsciousness at the end of life: findings from a national physician survey.

Context: The terms "palliative sedation" and "terminal sedation" have been used to refer to both proportionate palliative sedation, in which unconsciousness is a foreseen but unintended side effect, and palliative sedation to unconsciousness, in which physicians aim to make their patients unconscious until death. It has not been clear to what extent palliative sedation to unconsciousness is accepted and practiced by U.S.

A spiritual problem? Primary care physicians' and psychiatrists' interpretations of medically unexplained symptoms.

Background: Patients commonly present to their physicians with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), and there is no consensus about how physicians should interpret or treat such symptoms.

Objective: To examine how variations in physicians' interpretations of MUS are associated with physicians' religious characteristics and with physician specialty (primary care vs. psychiatry).