In an increasingly cost-conscious health care environment, average length of hospital stay has decreased. Although psychiatric inpatient treatment is largely exempt from the constraints of the Medicare diagnosis related groups (DRG's), length of stay for geropsychiatric hospital services has decreased also. A trend toward higher rates of early…

In recent years, clinical and developmental psychologists have been practicing in health care settings, including public health programs and hospitals. Psychologists have struggled to develop an identity in the health care setting and a medical-psychological theory for practicing as a consultant with medical patients. Because consultation/liaison…

Recently, hospital services and the medical profession in general have become the focus of public dissatisfaction. This speech advocates the implementation of an aggressive public relations program, in order to restore credibility to the health services. Specifically, independent audits of hospital public relations networks and products are…

Extended hospital stay after medical treatment has been completed represents a major problem in health care. Space misuse can occur late in the hospitalization, often because planning is not initiated until discharge is imminent. This study sought to determine if variables assessed soon after hospital admission could be used to screen patients at…

The major towns and cities of the Southern Highlands are sometimes not categorized as "Appalachian," yet they have considerable impact on the character of the region. This study examines the distribution of selected human activities and quality of life variables in 156 counties in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North…

This description of the Cedar Valley Hospice program emphasizes palliative and supportive care for terminally ill patients and their families. The history of the hospice movement is outlined along with a description of the Cedar Valley program and the results of a 1980 program evaluation. The appendices contain a statement of the hospice goals and…

A therapeutic play program in New Zealand aims to provide an environment that helps children cope with the stress of being in a hospital. A relatively new aspect of child health care in New Zealand, the therapeutic play program is a preventive mental health program that differs from play therapy, which is intervention for children who have an…

As the American population increases, the health problems of older women will be of greater concern to health planners, because it is the elderly woman who most often survives to old age and has greater need of services. Data from the National Health Survey was used to determine characteristics, conditions, management, and outcomes of patients at…

This paper describes the continuum of comprehensive services offered by the social work department of the Long Island Jewish Medical Center to a high risk elderly population, i.e., those who are widows, widowers, older divorced individuals and singles, particularly those who have difficulty caring for themselves. Following a brief review of the…

The medical care system is undergoing widespread and significant changes. Individual hospitals may be disappearing as mergers, acquisitions, and a variety of multi-institutional arrangements become the dominant form and as a host of free-standing medical enterprises spread out into the community. (MLW)

This report contains brief descriptions of seven evaluative efforts and outcomes of health education programs, some considerations of problems encountered in evaluating the programs, and detailed descriptions of two case studies: (1) a process evaluation of preoperative teaching and (2) a retrospective study of visiting nurse association use by…

Prepaid group practice as a concept for providing health care is now over 25 years old in the nation and in New York City. It has overcome initial opposition by the medical profession and has been adopted by government as a healthy strategy under the acronym HMO or "Health Maintenance Organization". The author asserts that on two major…

Persons from minority groups often are at a linguistic disadvantage in (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Nov. 22, 1975) the language and culture of the physician or psychoanalyst, who may be unaware of problems of understanding. Patients have certain language rights in medical care. (1) The right to human dignity in the medical relationship is…

A patient education evaluation project and how it applies or might be useful to other hospital settings is discussed in this paper. The following topics are included: United Hospitals (St. Paul, Minnesota); situation and approach to patient education; description of the patient education evaluation project, including design, criteria, and elements…

A survey was made of 11 alcohol/drug treatment centers to assess their education services, client treatment, staff inservice, and community/workplace outreach. Background information was gathered on the type of services offered, the organizational operation, licensed bed capacity, physical environment, payment system, and admission criteria. The…