Personal Health Records (PHRs) and PHR systems have been designed as consumer-oriented tools to empower patients and improve health care. Despite significant consumer interest and anticipated benefits, adoption remains low. Understanding the consumer perspective is necessary, but insufficient by itself. Consumer PHR use also has broad implications…

Background: The U.S. health care system has been under immense scrutiny for ever-increasing costs and poor health outcomes for its patients. Comparative Effectiveness Research (CER) has emerged as a generally accepted practice by providers, policy makers, and scientists as an approach to identify the most clinical- and cost-effective interventions…

In healthcare institutions, work must continue 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. A team of nurses is needed to provide around-the-clock patient care, and this process requires transfer of patient care responsibilities, a process known as a "handoff." The present study explored the role of electronic health records in structuring handoff…

Coordination of mental health services in children with serious emotional disturbance (SED) has shown a preliminary relationship to positive outcomes in children. Yet, research in this area is sparse. Therefore, the relation between service coordination activities and adaptive functioning was examined for 51 children SED who were treated in the…

In order to successfully integrate screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) into primary care, education of clinicians must be paired with sustainable transformation of the clinical settings in which they practice. The SBIRT Oregon project adopted this strategy in an effort to fully integrate SBIRT into 7 primary care…

This report by the Kentucky Department of Education states that "the school council shall have the responsibility to set school policy consistent with district board policy which shall provide an environment to enhance the students' achievement and help the school meet the goals established in KRS 158.645 and 158.6451." The report's 18…

Patient identification (ID) errors occurring during the medication administration process can be fatal. The aim of this study is to determine whether differences in nurses' behaviors and visual scanning patterns during the medication administration process influence their capacities to identify patient ID errors. Nurse participants (n = 20)…

Poor academic performance during childhood predicts later adverse outcomes, and could be targeted for improvement if detected early. This study used population-based record linkage to examine the association between early life risk factors and academic achievement at two different stages of development using two different cohorts: a kindergarten…

This longitudinal study explored the rate of language growth of children in an early intervention program providing auditory-verbal therapy. A retrospective investigation, the study applied a linear growth model to estimate a mean growth curve and the extent of individual variation in language performance on the Preschool Language Scale, 4th ed.…

Background: Food service directors have a concern that federal reimbursement is not meeting the demands of increasing costs of healthier meals. The purpose of this article is to report the food option changes and the annual revenues and expenses of the school food service environment. Methods: The HEALTHY study was a 3-year (2006 to 2009)…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the electronic health record system components and patient outcomes in an acute hospital setting, given that the current presidential administration has earmarked nearly $50 billion to the implementation of the electronic health record. The relationship between the…

The primary purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how a paperless BAS can affect the overall performance of a school's administrative activities. The research included direct observation, survey questionnaires, document review, and both structured and unstructured interviews. The selected school, a K-12 charter school, was an ideal…

In the quest for database usability, several applications enable users to design custom forms using a graphical interface, and forward engineer the forms into new databases. The path-breaking aspect of such applications is that users are completely shielded from the technicalities of database creation. Despite this innovation, the process of…

The purpose of this historical case study was to gain an understanding of dropout recovery programs from an interpretive historical perspective. Dropout Recovery is an Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education initiative that provides high school dropouts an opportunity to re-enroll in school, gain academic credit, and participate in…

The use of electronic personal health records is becoming increasingly more popular as healthcare providers, healthcare and government leaders, and patients are seeking ways to improve healthcare quality and to decrease costs (Abrahamsen, 2007). This quantitative, descriptive correlational study examined the relationship between the degree of…