Publications by authors named "Thomas G Mcleod"

Free clinics provide care to over 1.8 million people in the United States every year and are a valuable safety net for uninsured and underinsured patients. The Affordable Care Act has resulted in millions of newly insured Americans, yet there is continued demand for healthcare at free clinics.

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Objective: Left atrial blood stasis is associated with increased risk for left atrial appendage thrombus (LAAT) and stroke in atrial fibrillation (AF). Von Willebrand factor (VWF) is associated with thromboembolism in AF. VWF thrombogenic activity is proportional to multimer size, which is regulated by VWF-cleaving protease (ADAMTS13).

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Background: Smoking is common among medically underserved populations. Accessible resources to encourage and support smoking cessation among these patients are limited. Volunteer medical student-run free smoking cessation clinics may provide an effective option to help these individuals achieve smoking abstinence.

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Purpose: Patient satisfaction surveys are increasingly used to assess the quality of health care delivery. Unfortunately, survey non-response may compromise generalizability (and inferential value). Although prior studies demonstrate an association between patient socio-demographic variables and response rate, relatively little information is available linking personality factors to non-response.

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Background: Although personal digital assistant use among residents is common, few outcomes-based studies have examined the impact of this technology on medical education.

Aims: We evaluated the educational effectiveness of a personal digital assistant-based geriatric assessment tool.

Methods: Internal medicine residents were enrolled as subjects.

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Purpose: The purpose of this research is to determine whether a pessimistic or hostile personality style adversely affects satisfaction with out-patient medical visits. Many patient and health care provider demographic characteristics have been related to patient satisfaction with a health care encounter, but little has been written about the association between patients' personality characteristics and their satisfaction ratings.

Design/methodology/approach: An eight-item patient satisfaction survey was completed by 11,636 randomly selected medical out-patients two to three months after their episode of care.

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A Web-based system for management of patients with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection (URI) or sinusitis was developed and implemented for a primary care practice. Researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of the clinical records of 241 patients who accessed the Web-based protocol for these symptoms. A total of 137 patients (57%) fulfilled the criteria for management of their symptoms by registered nurses who followed established treatment guidelines; 51 patients were diagnosed as having URI symptoms and 86 with symptoms of acute sinusitis.

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Two hundred and twelve patients with upper-respiratory-tract infection (URI) or sinusitis were treated using a nurse-based telephone protocol. This study evaluated the clinical outcomes and satisfaction of the patients compared with patients receiving usual care. For patients with URI, the rate of antibiotic administration was lower in the nurse-based telephone-treatment group (28% vs.

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Limited information is available on personal digital assistant (PDA) use patterns in medical settings. Recognizing that use patterns may be important considerations for development of handheld-based information systems, the authors characterized PDA use at their institution. A survey was mailed to all internal medicine physicians at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, in May 2002.

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