Older, Seriously Ill Veterans' Views on the Role of Religion and Spirituality in Health-Care Delivery.

Objectives: To describe older Veteran's perspectives on the current delivery of religious or spiritual (R/S) care.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with older veterans with advanced stage cancer, heart failure, or pulmonary disease to elicit views on when, how, and by whom religious and spiritual care is preferred.

Results: The sample (n = 17) was largely male (94%), non-Hispanic white (52.

Comprehensive Support for Family Caregivers of Post-9/11 Veterans Increases Veteran Utilization of Long-term Services and Supports: A Propensity Score Analysis.

Family caregivers are an important component of the long-term services and supports (LTSS) system. However, caregiving may have negative consequences for caregiver physical and emotional health. Connecting caregivers to formal short-term home- and community-based services (HCBS), through information resources and referrals, might alleviate family caregiver burden and delay nursing home entry for the patient.

Comprehensive Support for Family Caregivers: Impact on Veteran Health Care Utilization and Costs.

This study aimed to examine the early impact of the Program of Comprehensive Assistance for Family Caregivers (PCAFC) on Veteran health care utilization and costs. A pre-post cohort design including a nonequivalent control group was used to understand how Veterans' use of Veteran Affairs health care and total health care costs changed in 6-month intervals up to 3 years after PCAFC enrollment. The control group was an inverse probability of treatment weighted sample of Veterans whose caregivers applied for, but were not accepted into, PCAFC.

Differentiating between cold agglutinins and rouleaux: a case series of seven patients.

We present a case series of seven patients with suspected cold agglutinin antibodies, discovered after initiation of bypass. Laboratory analysis of blood samples intraoperatively determined the cause of the aggregation to be rouleaux formation in three of the patients and cold agglutinins in the other four.

Economic Outcomes Associated with a Pharmacist-Adjudicated Formulary Consult Service in a Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Background: Several cost analysis studies have been conducted looking at clinical and economic outcomes associated with clinical pharmacist services in a variety of health care settings. However, there is a paucity of data regarding the economic impact of clinical pharmacist involvement in formulary management at the hospital level.

Objective: To evaluate economic outcomes of a pharmacist-adjudicated formulary management consult service in a Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center offering outpatient and inpatient services.

Effects of microgravity on the virulence of Listeria monocytogenes, Enterococcus faecalis, Candida albicans, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

To evaluate effects of microgravity on virulence, we studied the ability of four common clinical pathogens--Listeria monocytogenes, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), Enterococcus faecalis, and Candida albicans--to kill wild type Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) nematodes at the larval and adult stages. Simultaneous studies were performed utilizing spaceflight, clinorotation in a 2-D clinorotation device, and static ground controls.