Objective: To operationalize and report on nationally endorsed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) performance measures (PMs) using health administrative data for British Columbia (BC), Canada.
Methods: All patients with RA in BC ages ≥18 years were identified between January 1, 1997 and December 31, 2009 using health administrative data and followed until December 2014. PMs tested include: the percentage of incident patients with ≥1 rheumatologist visit within 365 days; the percentage of prevalent patients with ≥1 rheumatologist visit per year; the percentage of prevalent patients dispensed disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy; and time from RA diagnosis to DMARD therapy. Measures were reported on patients seen by rheumatologists, and in the total population.
Results: The cohort included 38,673 incident and 57,922 prevalent RA cases. The percentage of patients seen by a rheumatologist within 365 days increased over time (35% in 2000 to 65% in 2009), while the percentage of RA patients under the care of a rheumatologist seen yearly declined (79% in 2001 to 39% in 2014). The decline was due to decreasing visit rates with increasing follow-up time rather than calendar effect. The percentage of RA patients dispensed a DMARD was suboptimal over follow-up (37% in 2014) in the total population but higher (87%) in those under current rheumatologist care. The median time to DMARD in those seen by a rheumatologist improved from 49 days in 2000 to 23 days in 2009, with 34% receiving treatment within the 14-day benchmark.
Conclusion: This study describes the operationalization and reporting of national PMs using administrative data and identifies gaps in care to further examine and address.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acr.24178 | DOI Listing |
Confl Health
January 2025
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Department of Non-Communicable Diseases Epidemiology, Keppel street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.
Background: Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the leading cause of death globally, and many humanitarian crises occur in countries with high NCD burdens. Peer support is a promising approach to improve NCD care in these settings. However, evidence on peer support for people living with NCDs in humanitarian settings is limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Med Educ
January 2025
Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Canada.
Introduction: Hospital strain has been shown to negatively impact physician wellness, educational experience, and patient care. To address rising service demands, a non-academic hospitalist service was implemented to reduce daily clinical teaching unit (CTU) census by approximately 30%. Secondary aims were to evaluate physician and trainee wellness on CTU as well as assess unintended adverse patient outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Public Health
January 2025
Centre for Healthcare Management, Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad, India.
Background: Substantial out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditures push a large portion of the population below the poverty line, especially those residing in rural areas having low incomes. Individuals from economically disadvantaged states in India incur higher healthcare costs for hospitalization in public health centers than do those from more developed states. Economically poorer households in states such as Bihar and Odisha face significantly higher OOP expenditures for hospitalization in public health centers than do those in economically developed states such as Tamil Nadu.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Infect Dis
January 2025
Department of Family Medicine, Epidemiology & Community Health, School of Health Sciences, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya.
Background: HIV and HBV remain significant public health challenges characterized by high prevalence, morbidity, and mortality, especially among women of reproductive age in Uganda. Patients with HBV do not receive routine counselling and education, and there are limited resources for laboratory investigation coupled with a high loss to follow-up. This study set out to assess barriers and facilitators of integrated viral hepatitis B C and HIV care model to optimize screening uptake among mothers and newborns at health facilities in Koboko District, west Nile sub-region, Uganda.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Orthop Traumatol
January 2025
Italian National Registry of Implantable Prostheses (RIPI), Italian National Institute of Health, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161, Rome, Italy.
Background: Treatment of ankle osteoarthritis by total ankle replacement (TAR) is increasing worldwide. The aim of the study was to present the overall temporal trends of TAR throughout 22 years (2001-2022) in Italy, analyzing the distributions of hospitals by volume of activity and patients by age and sex, drawing on the National Hospital Discharge Record database. Furthermore, as a secondary aim, we compared these trends with those of ankle fusions.
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