Comparing Smoking Cessation Interventions among Underserved Patients Referred for Lung Cancer Screening: A Pragmatic Trial Protocol.

Smoking burdens are greatest among underserved patients. Lung cancer screening (LCS) reduces mortality among individuals at risk for smoking-associated lung cancer. Although LCS programs must offer smoking cessation support, the interventions that best promote cessation among underserved patients in this setting are unknown.

"I Don't Have Time to Sit and Talk with Them": Hospitalists' Perspectives on Palliative Care Consultation for Patients with Dementia.

Background/objectives: Specialty palliative care for hospitalized patients with dementia is widely recommended and may improve outcomes, yet rates of consultation remain low. We sought to describe hospitalists' decision-making regarding palliative care consultation for patients with dementia.

Design: Descriptive qualitative study.

Assessing the impact of an integrated care system on the healthcare expenditures of children with special healthcare needs.

Objectives: The Children's Medical Services Network, a carved-out fee-for-service healthcare system for Florida's children with special healthcare needs (CSHCN), chose to develop an integrated care system (ICS) for its enrollees. The goals of this study were to analyze the effects of a managed care program on the Medicaid expenditures of CSHCN and to evaluate the performance of econometric models used to analyze healthcare expenditures.

Study Design: We used administrative data from 3947 CSHCN enrolled in Florida's Medicaid program between 2006 and 2008 for 2 treatment and 2 control counties.

Effect of an integrated care system on utilization for CSHCN in Florida.

In 2006, Florida began a pilot program under a federal Medicaid waiver to reform its Medicaid program in Broward and Duval counties. The Children's Medical Services Network, a subcontracted health care delivery system for Florida's children with special health care needs (CSHCN) enrolled in public insurance programs, participated in Medicaid reform through an Integrated Care System (ICS) for its enrollees. The ICS constitutes a significant departure from the subcontracted fee-for-service system used to deliver care to CSHCN in the non-reform counties, and limited information exists about its impact.

Caring for children with life-threatening illnesses: impact on White, African American, and Latino families.

We describe the racial and ethnic variation in family impact resulting from caring for a child with a life-threatening illness. Parents of children aged 2-21 years diagnosed with a potentially life-threatening illness and enrolled in Florida's Medicaid and Children's Medical Services Network programs were surveyed. Two hundred sixty-six telephone surveys were conducted in English and Spanish between November 2007 and April 2008.

Family support in pediatric palliative care: how are families impacted by their children's illnesses?

Context: Palliative care programs have the opportunity to intercede and provide supportive care to parents whose families have been impacted by their children's illnesses. By understanding how families are impacted, programs can refine their service provision and investigate unmet needs.

Objective: To determine how families are impacted and what factors are associated with greater impact.

Assessing non-response bias in pediatric palliative care research.

National experts have recognized a need for increased research in pediatric palliative care. However, when conducting research it is important to use rigorous methods, report significant and non-significant findings, and include information on responders and non-responders. Most studies do not present information on non-responders, yet this is critical as the results many not be generalizable if there are inherent differences between the two groups.

Pediatricians' management practices for chronic pain.

Objective: While research has established that pediatric pain is undertreated, it is unclear who should have primary responsibility for its management. This study asks pediatricians who they believe should treat pain and how pain should be assessed and managed.

Methods: We administered a mail and online survey about pediatric chronic pain and palliative care to a random sample of 800 U.

Measuring quality of life in pediatric palliative care: challenges and potential solutions.

Annually, about 500,000 children are coping with life-limiting illnesses in the USA. Integrated pediatric palliative care program could benefit some of these children by improving their health-related quality of life (HRQOL). To measure the effect of pediatric palliative care programs on HRQOL, a valid and reliable tool must be identified.

Effect of a pediatric palliative care program on nurses' referral preferences.

Purpose: Florida was the first state to develop and implement a publicly funded pediatric palliative care program, which provides supportive care services to children and families from the point of diagnosis onward. Nurses employed by the Florida Department of Health, Children's Medical Services Network (CMSN) play an important role in this program as they are charged with identifying children with life-limiting illnesses in their caseloads for referral to the program. This study aims to estimate the differtences in referral preferences of nurses who work in Partners in Care: Together for Kids (PIC:TFK) program areas versus nurses who work in non-PIC:TFK areas.

Factors that affect parent perceptions of provider-family partnership for children with special health care needs.

Partnering between families and their children's providers is a cornerstone of family-centered care. This study aimed to identify factors associated with family-provider partnership and determine the association between partnership and other outcome measures for children with special health care needs (CSHCN). Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate analyses were conducted using data from the 2005-2006 National Survey of Children with Special Health Care Needs.

Pediatric palliative care: describing hospice users and identifying factors that affect hospice expenditures.

Objective: Each year approximately 50,000 children die. These children could benefit from pediatric palliative care, and hospice is one important provider of palliative care. However, little information exists to understand pediatric hospice care.

Developing a pediatric palliative care program: addressing the lack of baseline expenditure information.

An estimated 500 000 children annually cope with life-limiting conditions expected to lead to premature death, but little is known about their health care expenditures at the end of life. This information is crucial for health planners to propose pediatric palliative care programs. This study aims to estimate predicted health care expenditures for Medicaid-eligible infants and children across several health service categories.

Partners in care: together for kids: Florida's model of pediatric palliative care.

Background: Many children with life-limiting illnesses in the United States could benefit from pediatric palliative care. However, national, state, and local barriers exist that hinder provision. One national barrier is the Medicare hospice reimbursement regulation that limits the provision of government subsidized hospice care to the final 6 months of life.