Journal of health and human services administration最新文献

This study examines the association between nursing home administrators (NHAs) professional membership, certification, and fellow status with quality indicators in nursing homes. Membership, certification, and fellow information (representing increasing levels of participation) originated from the American College of Health Care Administrators (ACHCA). ACHCA is a professional association which represents long-term care administrators. The Quality Measures reported on the Nursing Home Compare web-site, and facility information from the On-line Survey Certification of Automated Records (OSCAR) were used. The period of interest was 2010 and a total of 19 quality indicators were examined. Data were analyzed through multivariate analyses using negative binomial regression. The results indicate NHAs who are members of ACHCA are associated with better quality in 6 of the 19 quality indicators examined; ACHCA certified member fellows are associated with better quality in 7 of the 19 quality indicators examined; ACHCA fellows are associated with better quality in 10 of the 19 quality indicators examined; and, ACHCA members (excluding certified, certified fellows, and fellows) are associated with better quality in 13 of the 19 quality indicators examined. These findings support the value of professional membership, as well as voluntary certification or fellow credentialing of NHAs with respect to quality improvement.

The purpose of this study was to explore characteristics of Internet users who seek health insurance information online, as well as factors affecting their behaviors in seeking health insurance information. Secondary data analysis was conducted using data from the 2012 Pew Internet Health Tracking Survey. Of 2,305 Internet user adults, only 29% were seeking health insurance information online. Bivariate analyses were conducted to test differences in characteristics of those who seek health insurance information online and those who do not. A logistic regression model was used to determine significant predictors of health insurance information-seeking behavior online. Findings suggested that factors such as being a single parent, having a high school education or less, and being uninsured were significant and those individuals were less likely to seek health insurance information online. Being a family caregiver of an adult and those who bought private health insurance or were entitled to Medicare were more likely to seek health insurance information online than non-caregivers and the uninsured. The findings suggested the need to provide quality health insurance information online is critical for both the insured and uninsured population.

The overall purpose of this study was to determine whether visits to the doctor in the last 12 months, education level, and annual household income for adult males increased the awareness of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) tests. The effect of these factors for the knowledge of PSA exams was performed using statistical analysis. A retrospective secondary database was utilized for this study using the questionnaire in the California Health Interview Survey from 2009. Based on this survey, annual visits to the doctor, higher educational levels attained, and greater take-home pay were statistically significant and the results of the study were equivalent to those hypothesized. This also reflects the consideration of marketing PSA blood test screenings to those adult males who are poor, uneducated, and do not see the doctor on a consistent basis.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) is a complex piece of legislation that requires a high level of collaboration between actors at multiple levels of government, federal and state, to successfully implement its provisions. However, the polarized political environment in which the law was passed has created roadblocks for implementation, with Republican governors claiming that they will not negotiate with federal agencies over many of the law's key details. Though the decisions of governors and of state legislatures are critical for policy implementation, much of the effort will require administrators at multiple levels of government, and often with different preferences, to collaborate with one another to set policy priorities and oversee the operation of key features of the law. This paper reports on the results of a recent in-depth survey of state-level administrators that examines the extent of state-federal collaboration to implement health reform. Using qualitative and quantitative indicators, I find that state administrators' engagement in collaborative activity is generally robust. Even so, state administrators' perceptions of their relationship with federal agents appear to vary by the partisan compositions of their respective states, suggesting that political conflict over the reform may pose some dilemmas for future implementation efforts.

The prevalence of chronic illnesses continues to increase as does the cost of such care. Teaching self-management skills is more effective than solely providing information and teaching technical skills at improving health outcomes. Serious games for health provide an opportunity to support learning and health-related behavior change using messages and experiences in an engaging and entertaining format. We developed eSMART-HD with the intention of improving interactions between patients with chronic disorders and their health care providers. This paper describes the factors that we considered when creating eSMART-HD, a serious game for health.