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Kinds of Files Terms modified by Files Selected AbstractsDIRECT FILE OF YOUTH TO CRIMINAL COURT: UNDERSTANDING THE PRACTICAL AND THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONSCRIMINOLOGY AND PUBLIC POLICY, Issue 4 2004AARON KUPCHIK First page of article [source] Rank and File: Assessing research quality in AustraliaEDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY, Issue 7 2008Linda J. Graham Abstract In this paper, the author describes recent developments in the assessment of research activity and publication in Australia. Of particular interest to readers will be the move to rank academic journals. EPAT received the highest possible ranking, however the process is far from complete. Some implications for the field, for this journal and particularly, for the educational foundations are discussed. [source] Interregional comparisons of sediment microbial respiration in streamsFRESHWATER BIOLOGY, Issue 2 2000B. H. Hill Summary 1The rate of microbial respiration on fine-grained stream sediments was measured at 371 first to fourth-order streams in the Central Appalachian region (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia), Southern Rocky Mountains (Colorado), and California's Central Valley in 1994 and 1995. 2Study streams were randomly selected from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) River Reach File (RF3) using the sample design developed by USEPA's Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP). 3Respiration rate ranged from 0 to 0.621 g O2 g -1 AFDM h -1 in Central Appalachian streams, 0-0.254 g O2 g -1 AFDM h -1 in Rocky Mountain streams, and 0-0.436 g O2 g -1 AFDM h -1 in Central Valley streams. 4Respiration was significantly lower in Southern Rocky Mountain streams and in cold water streams (< 15 °C) of the Central Appalachians. 5Within a defined index period, respiration was not significantly different between years, and was significantly correlated with stream temperature and chemistry (DOC, total N, total P, K, Cl, and alkalinity). 6The uniformity of respiration estimates among the three study regions suggests that sediment microbial respiration may be collected at any number of scales above the site-level for reliable prediction of respiration patterns at larger spatial scales. [source] Reading and Writing the Stasi File: on the Uses and Abuses of The File as (auto)biographyGERMAN LIFE AND LETTERS, Issue 4 2003Alison Lewis The opening of the Stasi files in 1992, made possible by the Stasi Documents Legislation, was an important symbolic act of reconciliation between victims and perpetrators. For victims, reading their file provided a means of re-appropriating stolen aspects of their lives and rewriting their life histories. This article argues that the Stasi file itself can be viewed as a form of hostile biography, authored by an oppressive state apparatus, that constituted in GDR times an all-powerful written ,technology of power'. The analogy of secret police files to literary genres enables us to pose a number of questions about the current uses to which the files are being put by victims and perpetrators. Are victims and perpetrators making similar use of their Stasi file in the writing of their autobiographies? What happens when the secret police file is removed from its original bureaucratic context and ,regime of truth' and starts to circulate as literary artefact in new contexts, for instance, as part of victims' and perpetrators' autobiographies? How is the value of the Stasi file now being judged? Is the file being used principally in the services of truth and reconciliation, as originally intended in the legislation, or does it now circulate in ,regimes of value' that place a higher premium on accounts of perpetrators, as can be witnessed in the publication of the fictitious ,autobiography' of the notorious secret police informer, Sascha Anderson? [source] A re-examination of distance as a proxy for severity of illness and the implications for differences in utilization by race/ethnicity ,,HEALTH ECONOMICS, Issue 7 2007Jayasree Basu Abstract The study analyzes the hospitalization patterns of elderly residents to examine whether the relation between distant travel and severity of illness is uniform across racial/ethnic subgroups. A hypothesis is made that severity thresholds could be higher for minorities than whites. Hospital discharge data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP-SID) of the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality for New York residents is used, with a link to the Area Resource File and American Hospital Association's survey files. Logistic models compare the association of distant admission with severity corresponding to each local threshold level, race, and type of hospital admission. The study uses four discrete distance thresholds in contrast to recent work. Also, an examination of severity thresholds for distant travel for different types of admission may clarify different sources of disparities in health care utilization. The findings indicate that minorities are likely to have higher severity thresholds than whites in seeking distant hospital care, although these conclusions depend on the type of condition. The study results imply that if costly elective services were regionalized to get the advantages of high volume for both cost and quality of care, some extra effort at outreach may be desirable to reduce disparities in appropriate care. Published in 2006 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Sources of information on adverse effects: a systematic reviewHEALTH INFORMATION & LIBRARIES JOURNAL, Issue 3 2010Su Golder Background:, Systematic reviews can provide accurate and timely information on adverse effects. An essential part of the systematic review process is a thorough search of the literature. This often requires searching many different sources. However, it is unclear which sources are most effective at providing information on adverse effects. Objective:, To identify and summarise studies that have evaluated sources of information on adverse effects. Methods:, Studies were located by searching in 10 databases as well as by reference checking, hand searching, citation searching and contacting experts. Results:, A total of 6218 citations were retrieved yielding 19 studies which met the inclusion criteria. The included studies tended to focus on the adverse effects of drug interventions and compare the relative value of different sources using the number of relevant references retrieved from searches of each source. However, few studies were conducted recently with a large sample of references. Conclusions:, This review suggests that embase, Derwent Drug File, medline and industry submissions may potentially provide the greatest number of relevant references for information on adverse effects of drugs. However, a systematic evaluation of the current value of different sources of information for adverse effects is urgently required. [source] An Empirical Taxonomy of Hospital Governing Board RolesHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 4 2008Shoou-Yih D. Lee Objective. To develop a taxonomy of governing board roles in U.S. hospitals. Data Sources. 2005 AHA Hospital Governance Survey, 2004 AHA Annual Survey of Hospitals, and Area Resource File. Study Design. A governing board taxonomy was developed using cluster analysis. Results were validated and reviewed by industry experts. Differences in hospital and environmental characteristics across clusters were examined. Data Extraction Methods. One-thousand three-hundred thirty-four hospitals with complete information on the study variables were included in the analysis. Principal Findings. Five distinct clusters of hospital governing boards were identified. Statistical tests showed that the five clusters had high internal reliability and high internal validity. Statistically significant differences in hospital and environmental conditions were found among clusters. Conclusions. The developed taxonomy provides policy makers, health care executives, and researchers a useful way to describe and understand hospital governing board roles. The taxonomy may also facilitate valid and systematic assessment of governance performance. Further, the taxonomy could be used as a framework for governing boards themselves to identify areas for improvement and direction for change. [source] Short- and Long-Term Mortality after an Acute Illness for Elderly Whites and BlacksHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 4 2008Daniel Polsky Objective. To estimate racial differences in mortality at 30 days and up to 2 years following a hospital admission for the elderly with common medical conditions. Data Sources. The Medicare Provider Analysis and Review File and the VA Patient Treatment File from 1998 to 2002 were used to extract patients 65 or older admitted with a principal diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, stroke, hip fracture, gastrointestinal bleeding, congestive heart failure, or pneumonia. Study Design. A retrospective analysis of risk-adjusted mortality after hospital admission for blacks and whites by medical condition and in different hospital settings. Principal Findings. Black Medicare patients had consistently lower adjusted 30-day mortality than white Medicare patients, but the initial survival advantage observed among blacks dissipated beyond 30 days and reversed by 2 years. For VA hospitalizations similar patterns were observed, but the initial survival advantage for blacks dissipated at a slower rate. Conclusions. Racial disparities in health are more likely to be generated in the posthospital phase of the process of care delivery rather than during the hospital stay. The slower rate of increase in relative mortality among black VA patients suggests an integrated health care delivery system like the VA may attenuate racial disparities in health. [source] The Impact of Private Insurance Coverage on Veterans' Use of VA Care: Insurance and Selection EffectsHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1p1 2008Yujing Shen Objective. To examine private insurance coverage and its impact on use of Veterans Health Administration (VA) care among VA enrollees without Medicare coverage. Data Sources. The 1999 National Health Survey of Veteran Enrollees merged with VA administrative data, with other information drawn from American Hospital Association data and the Area Resource File. Study Design. We modeled VA enrollees' decision of having private insurance coverage and its impact on use of VA care controlling for sociodemographic information, patients' health status, VA priority status and access to VA and non-VA alternatives. We estimated the true impact of insurance on the use of VA care by teasing out potential selection bias. Bias came from two sources: a security selection effect (sicker enrollees purchase private insurance for extra security and use more VA and non-VA care) and a preference selection effect (VA enrollees who prefer non-VA care may purchase private insurance and use less VA care). Principal Findings. VA enrollees with private insurance coverage were less likely to use VA care. Security selection dominated preference selection and naïve models that did not control for selection effects consistently underestimated the insurance effect. Conclusions. Our results indicate that prior research, which has not controlled for insurance selection effects, may have underestimated the potential impact of any private insurance policy change, which may in turn affect VA enrollees' private insurance coverage and consequently their use of VA care. From the decline in private insurance coverage from 1999 to 2002, we projected an increase of 29,400 patients and 158 million dollars for VA health care services. [source] Factors Associated with the Income Distribution of Full-Time Physicians: A Quantile Regression ApproachHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5 2007Ya-Chen Tina Shih Objective. Physician income is generally high, but quite variable; hence, physicians have divergent perspectives regarding health policy initiatives and market reforms that could affect their incomes. We investigated factors underlying the distribution of income within the physician population. Data Sources. Full-time physicians (N=10,777) from the restricted version of the 1996,1997 Community Tracking Study Physician Survey (CTS-PS), 1996 Area Resource File, and 1996 health maintenance organization penetration data. Study Design. We conducted separate analyses for primary care physicians (PCPs) and specialists. We employed least square and quantile regression models to examine factors associated with physician incomes at the mean and at various points of the income distribution, respectively. We accounted for the complex survey design for the CTS-PS data using appropriate weighted procedures and explored endogeneity using an instrumental variables method. Principal Findings. We detected widespread and subtle effects of many variables on physician incomes at different points (10th, 25th, 75th, and 90th percentiles) in the distribution that were undetected when employing regression estimations focusing on only the means or medians. Our findings show that the effects of managed care penetration are demonstrable at the mean of specialist incomes, but are more pronounced at higher levels. Conversely, a gender gap in earnings occurs at all levels of income of both PCPs and specialists, but is more pronounced at lower income levels. Conclusions. The quantile regression technique offers an analytical tool to evaluate policy effects beyond the means. A longitudinal application of this approach may enable health policy makers to identify winners and losers among segments of the physician workforce and assess how market dynamics and health policy initiatives affect the overall physician income distribution over various time intervals. [source] The Effects of Health Sector Market Factors and Vulnerable Group Membership on Access to Alcohol, Drug, and Mental Health CareHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 3p1 2007Susan E. Stockdale Objective. This study adapts Andersen's Behavioral Model to determine if health sector market conditions affect vulnerable subgroups' use of alcohol, drug, and mental health services (ADM) differently than the general population, focusing specifically on community-level predisposing and enabling characteristics. Data Sources. Wave 2 data (2000,2001) from the Health Care for Communities study, supplemented with cases from wave 1 (1997,1998), were merged with area characteristics taken from Census, Area Resource File (ARF), and other data sources. Study Design. The study used four-level hierarchical logistic regression to examine access to ADM care from any provider and specialty ADM access. Interactions between community-level predisposing and enabling vulnerability characteristics with individual race/ethnicity, age, income category, and insurance type were explored. Principal Findings. Nonwhites, the poor, uninsured, and elderly had lower likelihoods of service use, but interactions between race/ethnicity, income, age and insurance status with community-level vulnerability factors were not statistically significant for any service use. For ADM specialty care, those with Medicare, Medicaid, private fully managed, and private partially managed insurance, the likelihood of utilization was higher in areas with higher HMO penetration. However, for those with other insurance or no insurance plan, the likelihood of utilization was lower in areas with higher HMO penetration. Conclusions. Community-level enabling factors explain part of the effect of disadvantaged status but, with the exception of the effect of HMO penetration on the relationship between insurance and specialty care use, do not modify any of the residual individual-level effects of disadvantage. Interventions targeting both structural and individual levels may be necessary to address the problem of health disparities. More research with longitudinal data is necessary to sort out the causal direction of social context and ADM access outcomes, and whether policy interventions to change health sector market conditions can shift ADM treatment utilization. [source] Does the Impact of Managed Care on Substance Abuse Treatment Services Vary by Provider Profit Status?HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 6p1 2005Todd A. Olmstead Objective. To extend our previous research by determining whether, and how, the impact of managed care (MC) on substance abuse treatment (SAT) services differs by facility ownership. Data Sources. The 2000 National Survey of Substance Abuse Treatment Services, which is designed to collect data on service offerings and other characteristics of SAT facilities in the U.S. These data are merged with data from the 2002 Area Resource File, a county-specific database containing information on population and MC activity. We use data on 10,513 facilities, virtually a census of all SAT facilities. Study Design. For each facility ownership type (for-profit [FP], not-for-profit [NFP], public), we estimate the impact of MC on the number and types of SAT services offered. We use instrumental variables techniques that account for possible endogeneity between facilities' involvement in MC and service offerings. Principal Findings. We find that the impact of MC on SAT service offerings differs in magnitude and direction by facility ownership. On average, MC causes FPs to offer approximately four additional services, causes publics to offer approximately four fewer services, and has no impact on the number of services offered by NFPs. The differential impact of MC on FPs and publics appears to be concentrated in therapy/counseling, medical testing, and transitional services. Conclusion. Our findings raise policy concerns that MC may reduce the quality of care provided by public SAT facilities by limiting the range of services offered. On the other hand, we find that FP clinics increase their range of services. One explanation is that MC results in standardization of service offerings across facilities of different ownership type. Further research is needed to better understand both the specific mechanisms of MC on SAT and the net impact on society. [source] The Effect of Medicaid Payment Generosity on Access and Use among BeneficiariesHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 3 2005Yu-Chu Shen Objective. This study examines the effects of Medicaid payment generosity on access and care for adult and child Medicaid beneficiaries. Data Source. Three years of the National Surveys of America's Families (1997, 1999, 2002) are linked to the Urban Institute Medicaid capitation rate surveys, the Area Resource File, and the American Hospital Association survey files. Study Design. In order to identify the effect of payment generosity apart from unmeasured differences across areas, we compare the experiences of Medicaid beneficiaries with groups that should not be affected by Medicaid payment policies. To assure that these groups are comparable to Medicaid beneficiaries, we reweight the data using propensity score methods. We use a difference-in-differences model to assess the effects of Medicaid payment generosity on four categories of access and use measures (continuity of care, preventive care, visits, and perceptions of provider communication and quality of care). Principal Findings. Higher payments increase the probability of having a usual source of care and the probability of having at least one visit to a doctor and other health professional for Medicaid adults, and produce more positive assessments of the health care received by adults and children. However, payment generosity has no effect on the other measures that we examined, such as the probability of receiving preventive care or the probability of having unmet needs. Conclusions. Higher payment rates can improve some aspects of access and use for Medicaid beneficiaries, but the effects are not dramatic. [source] Predicting Patterns of Mammography Use: A Geographic Perspective on National Needs for Intervention ResearchHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 4 2002Julie Legler Objective. To introduce a methodology for planning preventive health service research that takes into account geographic context. Data Sources. National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) self-reports of mammography within the past two years, 1987, and 1993,94. Area Resource File (ARF), 1990. Database of mammography intervention research studies conducted from 1984 to 1994. Design. Bayesian hierarchical modeling describes mammography as a function of county-level socioeconomic data and explicitly estimates the geographic variation unexplained by the county-level data. This model produces county use estimates (both NHIS-sampled and unsampled), which are aggregated for entire states. The locations of intervention research studies are examined in light of the statewide mammography utilization estimates. Data Extraction. Individual level NHIS data were merged with county-level data from the ARF. Principal Findings. State maps reveal the estimated distribution of mammography utilization and intervention research. Eighteen states with low mammography use reported no intervention research activity. County-level occupation and education were important predictors for younger women in 1993,94. In 1987, they were not predictive for any demographic group. Conclusions. Opportunities exist to improve the planning of future intervention research by considering geographic context. Modeling results suggest that the choice of predictors be tailored to both the population and the time period under study when planning interventions. [source] A National Study of Efficiency for Dialysis Centers: An Examination of Market Competition and Facility Characteristics for Production of Multiple Dialysis OutputsHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 3 2002Hacer Ozgen Objective. To examine market competition and facility characteristics that can be related to technical efficiency in the production of multiple dialysis outputs from the perspective of the industrial organization model. Study Setting. Freestanding dialysis facilities that operated in 1997 submitted cost report forms to the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), and offered all three outputs,outpatient dialysis, dialysis training, and home program dialysis. Data Sources. The Independent Renal Facility Cost Report Data file (IRFCRD) from HCFA was utilized to obtain information on output and input variables and market and facility features for 791 multiple-output facilities. Information regarding population characteristics was obtained from the Area Resources File. Study Design. Cross-sectional data for the year 1997 were utilized to obtain facility-specific technical efficiency scores estimated through Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). A binary variable of efficiency status was then regressed against its market and facility characteristics and control factors in a multivariate logistic regression analysis. Principal Findings. The majority of the facilities in the sample are functioning technically inefficiently. Neither the intensity of market competition nor a policy of dialyzer reuse has a significant effect on the facilities' efficiency. Technical efficiency is significantly associated, however, with type of ownership, with the interaction between the market concentration of for-profits and ownership type, and with affiliations with chains of different sizes. Nonprofit and government-owned facilities are more likely than their for-profit counterparts to become inefficient producers of renal dialysis outputs. On the other hand, that relationship between ownership form and efficiency is reversed as the market concentration of for-profits in a given market increases. Facilities that are members of large chains are more likely to be technically inefficient. Conclusions. Facilities do not appear to benefit from joint production of a variety of dialysis outputs, which may explain the ongoing tendency toward single-output production. Ownership form does make a positive difference in production efficiency, but only in local markets where competition exists between nonprofit and for-profit facilities. The increasing inefficiency associated with membership in large chains suggests that the growing consolidation in the dialysis industry may not, in fact, be the strategy for attaining more technical efficiency in the production of multiple dialysis outputs. [source] Does Prospective Payment Really Contain Nursing Home Costs?HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 2 2002Li-Wu Chen Objective. To examine whether nursing homes would behave more efficiently, without compromising their quality of care, under prospective payment. Data Sources. Four data sets for 1994: the Skilled Nursing Facility Minimum Data Set, the Online Survey Certification and Reporting System file, the Area Resource File, and the Hospital Wage Indices File. A national sample of 4,635 nursing homes is included in the analysis. Study Design. Using a modified hybrid functional form to estimate nursing home costs, we distinguish our study from previous research by controlling for quality differences (related to both care and life) and addressing the issues of output and quality endogeneity, as well as using more recent national data. Factor analysis was used to operationalize quality variables. To address the endogeneity problems, instrumental measures were created for nursing home output and quality variables. Principal Findings. Nursing homes in states using prospective payment systems do not have lower costs than their counterpart facilities under retrospective cost-based payment systems, after quality differences among facilities are controlled for and the endogeneity problem of quality variables is addressed. Conclusions. The effects of prospective payment on nursing home cost reduction may be through quality cuts, rather than cost efficiency. If nursing home payments under prospective payment systems are not adjusted for quality, nursing homes may respond by cutting their quality levels, rather than controlling costs. Future outcomes research may provide useful insights into the adjustment of quality in the design of prospective payment for nursing home care. [source] Documentation of quality: the Plasma Master File (PMF)ISBT SCIENCE SERIES: THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF INTRACELLULAR TRANSPORT, Issue n1 2010J. Dodt No abstract is available for this article. [source] Nursing Home Characteristics and Potentially Preventable Hospitalizations of Long-Stay ResidentsJOURNAL OF AMERICAN GERIATRICS SOCIETY, Issue 10 2004Orna Intrator PhD Objectives: To examine the association between having a nurse practitioner/physician assistant (NP/PA) on staff, other nursing home (NH) characteristics, and the rate of potentially preventable/avoidable hospitalizations of long-stay residents, as defined using a list of ambulatory care,sensitive (ACS) diagnoses. Design: Cross-sectional prospective study using Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inpatient claims and eligibility records, On-line Survey Certification Automated Records, (OSCAR) and Area Resource File (ARP). Setting: Freestanding urban NHs in Maine, Kansas, New York, and South Dakota. Participants: Residents of 663 facilities with a quarterly or annual MDS assessment in the 2nd quarter of 1997, who had a prior MDS assessment at least 160 days before, and who were not health maintenance organization members throughout 1997 (N=54,631). Measurements: A 180-day multinomial outcome was defined as having any hospitalization with primary ACS diagnosis, otherwise having been hospitalized, otherwise died, and otherwise remained in the facility. Results: Multilevel models show that facilities with NP/PAs were associated with lower hospitalization rates for ACS conditions (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=0.83), but not with other hospitalizations. Facilities with more physicians were associated with higher ACS hospitalizations (ACS, AOR=1.14, and non-ACS, AOR=1.10). Facilities providing intravenous therapy, and those that operate a nurses' aide training program were associated with fewer hospitalizations of both types. Conclusion: Employment of NP/PAs in NHs, the provision of intravenous therapy, and the operation of certified nurse assistant training programs appear to reduce ACS hospitalizations, and may be feasible cost-saving policy interventions. [source] The Effects of the Women, Infants, and Children's Supplemental Food Program on Dentally Related Medicaid ExpendituresJOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH DENTISTRY, Issue 2 2004Jessica Y. Lee DDS Abstract Objective: This study estimates the effects of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) on dentally related Medicaid expenditures for young children. Methods: We used a five-year cohort study design to compare dentally related Medicaid expenditures for children enrolled in WIC versus those not enrolled for each year of life up to age 5 years. There were 49,795 children born in North Carolina in 1992 who met the inclusion criteria for the study. Their birth records were linked to Medicaid enrollment and claims files, WIC master files, and the Area Resource File. Our analysis strategy included a logit and OLS two-part model with CPI dollar adjustments. Results: Children who participated in WIC at ages 1 and 2 years had significantly less dentally related expenditures than those who did not participate. WIC participation at age 3 years did not have a significant effect. Fewer WIC children received dental care under general anesthesia than non-WIC children. Conclusions: The WIC program has the potential for decreasing dentally related costs to the Medicaid program, while increasing use of dental services. [source] Managing Diversity in U.S. Federal Agencies: Effects of Diversity and Diversity Management on Employee Perceptions of Organizational PerformancePUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2010Sungjoo Choi Diversity in the workplace is a central issue for contemporary organizational management. Concomitantly, managing increased diversity deserves greater concern in public, private, and nonprofit organizations. The authors address the effects of diversity and diversity management on employee perceptions of organizational performance in U.S. federal agencies by developing measures of three variables: diversity, diversity management, and perceived organizational performance. Drawing from the Central Personnel Data File and the 2004 Federal Human Capital Survey, their findings suggest that racial diversity relates negatively to organizational performance. When moderated by diversity management policies and practices and team processes, however, racial diversity correlates positively with organizational performance. Gender and age diversity and their interactions with contextual variables produce mixed results, suggesting that gender and age diversity reflect more complicated relationships. This article provides evidence for several benefits derived from effectively managing diversity. [source] Undereducation and Overeducation in the Australian Labour Market,THE ECONOMIC RECORD, Issue 2005DERBY VOON This paper uses data from the 1996 Census of Population and Housing Household Sample File (HSF) to study the incidence of mismatch between workers' educational attainments and the requirements of their jobs, and the earnings consequences of this mismatch. It also examines whether mismatch contributes to the explanation of the gender wage differential in the Australian labour market. It is found that approximately 15.8 per cent of men and 13.6 per cent of women are overeducated, whereas approximately 18.5 per cent of women and 13.7 per cent of men are undereducated. Substantial earnings consequences are found to be associated with this mismatch, with surplus schooling yielding relatively low returns. The results suggest that mismatch does not account for the gender wage gap in the Australian labour market; rather the gender wage differential is entrenched in the fundamentals of pay determination. [source] Home Health Care Agency Staffing Patterns Before and After the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, by Rural and Urban LocationTHE JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 1 2008William J. McAuley PhD ABSTRACT:,Context:The Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 and other recent policies have led to reduced Medicare funding for home health agencies (HHAs) and visits per beneficiary. Purpose: We examine the staffing characteristics of stable Medicare-certified HHAs across rural and urban counties from 1996 to 2002, a period encompassing the changes associated with the BBA and related policies. Methods: Data were drawn from Medicare Provider of Service files and the Area Resource File. The unit of analysis was the 3,126 counties in the United States, grouped into 5 categories: metropolitan, nonmetropolitan adjacent, and 3 nonmetropolitan nonadjacent groups identified by largest town size. Only relatively stable HHAs were included. We generated summary HHA staff statistics for each county group and year. Findings: All staff categories, other than therapists, declined from 1997 to 2002 across the metropolitan and nonmetropolitan county groupings. There were substantial population-adjusted decreases in stable HHA-based home health aides in all counties, including remote counties. Conclusions: The limited presence of stable HHA staff in certain nonmetropolitan county types has been exacerbated since implementation of the BBA, especially in the most rural counties. The loss of aides in more rural counties may limit the availability of home-based long-term care in these locations, where the need for long-term care is considerable. Future research should examine the degree to which the presence of HHA staff influences actual access and whether other paid and unpaid sources of care substitute for Medicare home health care in counties with limited supplies of HHA staff. [source] The Powder Diffraction File: present and futureACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION B, Issue 3-1 2002John Faber The International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) produces the Powder Diffraction File (PDF). This paper discusses some of the seminal events in the history of producing this primary reference for powder diffraction. Recent key events that center on collaborative initiatives have led to an enormous jump in entry population for the PDF. Collective efforts to editorialize the PDF are ongoing and provide enormous added value to the file. Recently, the ICDD has created a new series of the PDF, designated PDF-4. These relational database structures are being used to house the PDF of the future. The design and benefits of the PDF-4 are described. [source] New Powder Diffraction File (PDF-4) in relational database format: advantages and data-mining capabilitiesACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION B, Issue 3-1 2002Soorya N. Kabekkodu The International Centre for Diffraction Data (ICDD) is responding to the changing needs in powder diffraction and materials analysis by developing the Powder Diffraction File (PDF) in a very flexible relational database (RDB) format. The PDF now contains 136,895 powder diffraction patterns. In this paper, an attempt is made to give an overview of the PDF-4, search/match methods and the advantages of having the PDF-4 in RDB format. Some case studies have been carried out to search for crystallization trends, properties, frequencies of space groups and prototype structures. These studies give a good understanding of the basic structural aspects of classes of compounds present in the database. The present paper also reports data-mining techniques and demonstrates the power of a relational database over the traditional (flat-file) database structures. [source] The Profitability of Medicare Admissions Based on Source of AdmissionACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 10 2008Megan McHugh PhD Abstract Objectives:, This study investigates whether admissions from the emergency department (ED) have lower dollar margins than elective admissions under Medicare and explores two possible reasons for differences in margins. Methods:, The authors developed patient-level Medicare dollar margins (calculated as patient revenue minus cost) for 1,159,243 Medicare admissions from 321 hospitals using data from the 2003 Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) and the Medicare Impact File. Differences in margins between ED and elective admissions were explored across a number of diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) using t-tests. Chi-square tests were used explore whether ED admission was more common among patients in low-profit DRGs and/or patients with greater severity of illness. Results:, The average Medicare dollar margins were ,$712 (95% confidence interval [CI] = ,$729 to ,$695) for ED admissions and $22 (95% CI = ,$2 to $47) for elective admissions. Medicare dollar margins for ED admissions were lower than those of elective admission for the most common DRGs. ED admission was associated with greater patient severity of illness. Conclusions:, Source of admission is a financially meaningful classification. Because Medicare payment policy does not recognize differences in cost based on patients' route of admission, hospitals may have a financial incentive to favor elective admissions over ED admissions. [source] The value of medical interventions for lung cancer in the elderly,CANCER, Issue 11 2007Results from SEER-CMHSF Abstract BACKGROUND. Lung cancer is the leading source of cancer mortality and spending. However, the value of spending on the treatment of lung cancer has not been conclusively demonstrated. The authors evaluated the value of medical care between 1983 and 1997 for nonsmall cell lung cancer in the elderly US population. METHODS. The authors used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) data to calculate life expectancy after diagnosis over the period 1983 to 1997. Direct costs for nonsmall cell lung cancer detection and treatment were determined by using Part A and Part B reimbursements from the Continuous Medicare History Sample File (CMHSF) data. The CMHSF and SEER data were linked to calculate lifetime treatment costs over the time period of interest. RESULTS. Life expectancy improved minimally, with an average increase of approximately 0.60 months. Total lifetime lung cancer spending rose by approximately $20,157 per patient in real, ie, adjusted for inflation, 2000 dollars from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, for a cost-effectiveness ratio of $403,142 per life year (LY). The cost-effectiveness ratio was $143,614 for localized cancer, $145,861 for regional cancer, and $1,190,322 for metastatic cancer. CONCLUSIONS. The cost-effectiveness ratio for nonsmall cell lung cancer was higher than traditional thresholds used to define cost-effective care. The most favorable results were for persons diagnosed with early stage cancer. These results suggested caution when encouraging more intensive care for lung cancer patients without first considering the tradeoffs with the costs of this therapy and its potential effects on mortality and/or quality of life. Cancer 2007. © 2007 American Cancer Society. [source] Application of the Levenshtein Distance Metric for the Construction of Longitudinal Data FilesEDUCATIONAL MEASUREMENT: ISSUES AND PRACTICE, Issue 2 2010Harold C. Doran The analysis of longitudinal data in education is becoming more prevalent given the nature of testing systems constructed for No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). However, constructing the longitudinal data files remains a significant challenge. Students move into new schools, but in many cases the unique identifiers (ID) that should remain constant for each student change. As a result, different students frequently share the same ID, and merging records for an ID that is erroneously assigned to different students clearly becomes problematic. In small data sets, quality assurance of the merge can proceed through human reviews of the data to ensure all merged records are properly joined. However, in data sets with hundreds of thousands of cases, quality assurance via human review is impossible. While the record linkage literature has many applications in other disciplines, the educational measurement literature lacks details of formal protocols that can be used for quality assurance procedures for longitudinal data files. This article presents an empirical quality assurance procedure that may be used to verify the integrity of the merges performed for longitudinal analysis. We also discuss possible extensions that would permit merges to occur even when unique identifiers are not available. [source] Do California Counties With Lower Socioeconomic Levels Have Less Access to Emergency Department Care?ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE, Issue 5 2010Deepa Ravikumar Abstract Objectives:, The study objective was to examine the relationship between number of emergency departments (EDs) per capita in California counties and measures of socioeconomic status, to determine whether individuals living in areas with lower socioeconomic levels have decreased access to emergency care. Methods:, The authors linked 2005 data from the American Hospital Association (AHA) Annual Survey of Hospitals with the Area Resource Files from the United States Department of Health and Human Services and performed Poisson regression analyses of the association between EDs per capita in individual California counties using the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) county codes and three measures of socioeconomic status: median household income, percentage uninsured, and years of education for individuals over 25 years of age. Multivariate analyses using Poisson regression were also performed to determine if any of these measures of socioeconomic status were independently associated with access to EDs. Results:, Median household income is inversely related to the number of EDs per capita (rate ratio = 0.83; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.71 to 0.96). Controlling for income in the multivariate analysis demonstrates that there are more EDs per 100,000 population in FIPS codes with more insured residents when compared with areas having less insured residents with the same levels of household income. Similarly, FIPS codes whose residents have more education have more EDs per 100,000 compared with areas with the same income level whose residents have less education. Conclusions:, Counties whose residents are poorer have more EDs per 100,000 residents than those with higher median household incomes. However, for the same income level, counties with more insured and more highly educated residents have a greater number of EDs per capita than those with less insured and less educated residents. These findings warrant in-depth studies on disparities in access to care as they relate to socioeconomic status. ACADEMIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE 2010; 17:508,513 © 2010 by the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine [source] Effects of Family Structure on Children's Use of Ambulatory Visits and Prescription MedicationsHEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 5 2006Alex Y. Chen Objective. To examine the effects of family structure, including number of parents, number of other children, and number and type of other adults, on office visits, emergency room visits, and use of prescription medications by children. Data Source. The Household Component of the 1996,2001 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). Study Design. The study consisted of a nationally representative sample of children 0,17 years of age living in single-mother or two-parent families. We used negative binomial regression to model office visits and emergency room visits and logistic regression to model the likelihood of prescription medication use. Our analyses adjusted for demographic and socioeconomic characteristics as well as measures of children's health and parental education and child-rearing experience. Data Collection/Extraction Method. We combined 1996,2001 MEPS Full Year Consolidated Files and Medical Conditions Files. Principal Findings. Descriptive data showed that children in single-mother families had fewer office visits than children in two-parent families; however, the effect of number of parents in the family on children's office visits or use of prescription medications was completely explained by other explanatory variables. By contrast, children living in families with many other children had fewer total and physician office visits and a lower likelihood of using a prescription medication than children living in families with no other children even after adjusting for other explanatory variables. Children who lived with other adults in addition to their parents also had fewer office visits and a lower likelihood of using a prescription medication than children who lived only with their parents. Conclusions. Children living in families with many other children or with other adults use less ambulatory care and prescription medications than their peers. Additional research is needed to determine whether these differences in utilization affect children's health. [source] RISING OCCUPATIONAL AND INDUSTRY MOBILITY IN THE UNITED STATES: 1968,97,INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC REVIEW, Issue 1 2008Gueorgui Kambourov We document and analyze the high level and the substantial increase in worker mobility in the United States over the 1968,97 period at various levels of occupational and industry aggregation. This is important in light of the recent findings that human capital of workers is largely occupation- or industry-specific. To control for measurement error in occupation and industry coding, we develop a method that utilizes the PSID Retrospective Occupation-Industry Supplemental Data Files. We emphasize the importance of our findings for understanding a number of issues such as the changes in wage inequality, aggregate productivity, job stability, and life-cycle earnings profiles. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||