The relationship between needs assessments and state strategies for meeting healthy people 2000 objectives: lessons from the Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant.

Recognizing the critical role of needs assessments in the development of public health policy, the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1989 required states to include needs assessments in their Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant applications and to demonstrate a link between needs and programs. We examined this link by analyzing the relationship between strategies to meet health objectives and needs assessments in the applications for fiscal year 1992 for the eight states in the southeast (DHHS Region 4). Overall, the proportion of strategies based on reported needs was 88%.

Human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV I-II) infection among patients in an inner-city emergency department.

Objective: To determine the seroprevalence and epidemiologic features of human T-lymphotropic virus (HTLV I-II) among an emergency department patient population with a high rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) infection.

Design: Prospective survey using identity-unlinked consecutive sampling during a 6-week period in 1988.

Setting: Inner-city teaching hospital.

Adherence to Universal (barrier) Precautions during interventions on critically ill and injured emergency department patients.

In a study undertaken to determine compliance with Universal Precautions, we observed 129 personnel performing 1,274 interventions on 151 consecutive critically ill and injured patients in an emergency department setting in July 1988. Barrier precautions were fully adhered to 44.0% of the time.