Purpose: To compare echocardiography use among urban and rural veterans and whether differences could be accounted for by distance. Methods: We used Veterans Administration (VA) administrative data from 1999 to 2007 to identify regular users of the VA Healthcare System (VA users) who did and did not receive echocardiography. Each veteran was…

Purpose: To examine the relationships between depression, geographic status, and clinical outcomes following a coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery. Methods: Using the 2004 Nationwide Inpatient Sample database, we identified 63,061 discharge records of patients who underwent a primary CABG surgery (urban 57,247 and rural 5,814). We…

Introduction: Physician use of the Internet for practice improvement has increased dramatically over the last decade, but research shows that many physicians choose not to participate. The current study investigated the association of specific physician characteristics with enrollment rates and intensity of participation in a specific…

Context: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a common and important cause of admission to US rural hospitals, as transport of patients with AMI to urban settings can result in unacceptable delays in care. Purpose: To examine the quality of care for patients with AMI in rural hospitals with differing degrees of remoteness from urban centers.…

Purpose: In our study, we sought to improve the accuracy of predicting the risk of hospitalization and to identify older, inner-city patients who could be targeted for preventive interventions. Design and Methods: Participants (56% were African American) in a randomized trial were from a primary care practice and included 1,041 patients living in…