Nursing Staff Time and Care Quality in Long-Term Care Facilities: A Systematic Review.

Background And Objectives: In long-term care (LTC) facilities, nursing staff are important contributors to resident care and well-being. Despite this, the relationships between nursing staff coverage, care hours, and quality of resident care in LTC facilities are not well understood and have implications for policy-makers. This systematic review summarizes current evidence on the relationship between nursing staff coverage, care hours, and quality of resident care in LTC facilities.

Adaptive Evolution in Rapid Assessments: A 25-Year Perspective.

Objectives: This article retrospectively examines the evolution of rapid assessments (RAs) produced by the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Program at the Institute of Health Economics over its 25-year relationship with a single requester, the Alberta Health Ministry (AHM).

Methods: The number, types, and methodological attributes of RAs produced over the past 25 years were reviewed. The reasons for developmental changes in RA processes and products over time were charted to document the push-pull tension between AHM needs and the HTA Program's drive to meet those needs while responding to changing methodological benchmarks.

Guidelines for investigating stillbirths: an update of a systematic review.

Objective: To identify formal, publicly available guidelines for stillbirth investigation and to identify the most appropriate clinical practice guideline (or component of a guideline) for use in Alberta.

Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted to identify primary and secondary research studies published between January 1985 and August 2006 and formal, publicly available guidelines on the subject of stillbirth investigation. The Cochrane Library, PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, HealthSTAR, Science Citation Index, BIOSIS, and the NHS and CRD databases were searched.

Mentoring a developing health technology assessment initiative in Romania: an example for countries with limited experience of assessing health technology.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to assist and facilitate introduction and development of a health technology assessment (HTA) program in Romania.

Methods: Mentoring of an initiative group in Romania was provided by an HTA program in Canada. Mentoring activities included provision of HTA materials, participation in local seminars, facilitating contact with HTA and funding organizations, and in-house training of a professional from Romania.

The cost of major comorbidity in people with diabetes mellitus.

Background: People with diabetes mellitus are more likely to have cardiovascular, renal and ophthalmic comorbidity than those without diabetes. Information on the economic impact of diabetes and its complications on the Canadian health care system is limited.

Methods: To estimate health care expenditures for diabetes and its major complications, we identified people with diabetes in 1996 in Saskatchewan, using the administrative databases of Saskatchewan Health.