Organ Donation and Transplantation in the Canadian Healthcare System

1997 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B Colpitts ◽  
Christian L Freitag
Keyword(s):  
Organ Donation ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Universal Coverage ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tissue Donation ◽  
Health Card ◽  
Universal Healthcare ◽  
Physician Care ◽  
Healthcare Insurance ◽  
Canadian Healthcare

Healthcare in Canada differs significantly from that in the United States. All Canadians have access to healthcare, and all 10 provinces of Canada have universal healthcare insurance plans that cover hospitalization and physician care. Each province administers its own healthcare system financed on an equal basis with the federal government, and each provincial resident is issued a health card that must be presented at hospitals or physicians' offices whenever medical care is requested. Canadian healthcare provides coverage for organ and tissue donation, transplantation, and cyclosporine for life for all transplant recipients. Canadian healthcare encompasses four basic principles: (1) universal coverage, (2) comprehensive coverage, (3) accessible care for all Canadians, and (4) portability of care. Canada has no national organization for organ donation and transplantation. The organ donation rates in Canada have averaged 14.1 donors per million population over the last 5 years, and are unchanged from previous years.

scholarly journals US Healthcare: A "Disaster" of a System

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-19
Author(s):  
Daphne Myers
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
The United States ◽  
Healthcare Policy ◽  
Universal Healthcare ◽  
The Right

The United States has seen presidential administrations with lofty goals for healthcare policy come and go time and again since its founding, but never an efficient healthcare system. The healthcare debate has been raging in America for years. Should healthcare be universal? Should it be publicly or privately funded, or both? Should all citizens have the right to healthcare? Should all citizens be required by law to have healthcare? The case for universal healthcare seems to be the strongest because it is the most cost-effective way for society to fulfill its humanitarian obligations.

scholarly journals It Won’t Be Easy: How to Make Universal Pharmacare Work in Canada

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Steven Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare System ◽  
Prescription Drugs ◽  
Universal Coverage ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Pharmaceutical Policy ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Federal Level ◽  
Universal Healthcare ◽  
The Status ◽  
Universal Healthcare System

One of the glaring gaps in Canada’s universal healthcare system is the low level of public financing of prescription drugs - 42.7% of total spending in 2018. At the federal level there is renewed interest in moving towards universal coverage, supported by a recently commissioned report on how to achieve it. It will take superb political navigation to extract Canadian pharmaceutical policy and practice from the grasp of interests that profit handsomely from the status quo. This perspective suggests the conditions under which a genuinely fair, effective, and efficient pharmacare plan can emerge.

Potential Financial Impact of First Assistant Billing by Surgical Residents

2007 ◽  
Vol 73 (7) ◽  
pp. 652-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Atul K. Madan ◽  
Timothy C. Fabian ◽  
David S. Tichansky
Keyword(s):  
Healthcare System ◽  
General Surgery ◽  
Private Insurance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
General Surgery Residency ◽  
Private Healthcare ◽  
Pro Bono ◽  
Healthcare Insurance ◽  
Case Logs

General surgery residency involves a mixture of 1) education of residents and 2) service by residents. The service that residents provide is not directly reimbursed in our current healthcare system by private healthcare insurance companies. This investigation characterizes the amount of reimbursement a typical resident would be able to collect if residents were allowed to collect for their services as a first assistant. The case logs of residents who graduated over 2 years from our general surgery residency program were reviewed. Data from each resident's last 2 years (postgraduate years 4 and 5) were included in this study. Relative value units (RVUs) for each Current Procedural Terminology code were reviewed. Collections were calculated by multiplying the Medicare conversion factor of $36.7856/RVU, the corresponding RVU, and a “standard” collection rate of 16 per cent for first assistants. There were 13 general surgery residents. These residents provided first assistant help with 91,473 RVUs over 2 years. A total amount of $535,380 could have been collected on first assistant fees for the last 2 years of their residency. Each resident would have been able to collect an average at least $41,414 just for first assistant operative fees. Resident assistance in the operating room provides significant savings for private healthcare insurance companies each year by reducing the need for first assistants. The data demonstrate that private insurance companies receive a considerable amount of pro bono service from residents. Changes in the financing of the current healthcare system in the United States will require educators to examine other sources ( i.e., private insurance companies) for support of graduate medication education.

scholarly journals Impact of the COVID-19 Vaccine on Asymptomatic Infection Among Patients Undergoing Pre-Procedural COVID-19 Molecular Screening

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron J Tande ◽  
Benjamin D Pollock ◽  
Nilay D Shah ◽  
Gianrico Farrugia ◽  
Abinash Virk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Relative Risk ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Asymptomatic Infection ◽  
Screening Tests ◽  
Molecular Screening ◽  
Molecular Tests ◽  
Asymptomatic Individuals ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Several vaccines are now clinically available under emergency use authorization in the United States and have demonstrated efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19. The impact of vaccines on asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection is largely unknown. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive, asymptomatic adult patients (n = 39,156) within a large United States healthcare system who underwent 48,333 pre-procedural SARS-CoV-2 molecular screening tests between December 17, 2020 and February 8, 2021. The primary exposure of interest was vaccination with at least one dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The primary outcome was relative risk of a positive SARS-CoV-2 molecular test among those asymptomatic persons who had received at least one dose of vaccine, as compared to persons who had not received vaccine during the same time period. Relative risk was adjusted for age, sex, race/ethnicity, patient residence relative to the hospital (local vs. non-local), healthcare system regions, and repeated screenings among patients using mixed effects log-binomial regression. Results Positive molecular tests in asymptomatic individuals were reported in 42 (1.4%) of 3,006 tests performed on vaccinated patients and 1,436 (3.2%) of 45,327 tests performed on unvaccinated patients (RR=0.44 95% CI: 0.33-0.60; p<.0001). Compared to unvaccinated patients, the risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection was lower among those >10 days after 1 st dose (RR=0.21; 95% CI: 0.12-0.37; p<.0001) and >0 days after 2 nd dose (RR=0.20; 95% CI: 0.09-0.44; p<.0001) in the adjusted analysis. Conclusions COVID-19 vaccination with an mRNA-based vaccine showed a significant association with a reduced risk of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection as measured during pre-procedural molecular screening. The results of this study demonstrate the impact of the vaccines on reduction in asymptomatic infections supplementing the randomized trial results on symptomatic patients.

scholarly journals Lessons Learned from Development of a Mobile App for Cardiovascular Health Awareness

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 5985
Author(s):  
Bryan Weichelt ◽  
Jeffrey VanWormer ◽  
Yin Xu ◽  
Chris Kadolph ◽  
Simon Lin
Keyword(s):  
Cardiovascular Disease ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Disease Risk ◽  
Cardiovascular Disease Risk ◽  
The United States ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Development Processes

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is a major public health concern in the United States. In response to the federally sponsored Million Hearts Risk Check Challenge, a team of programmers, software developers, health-information technologists, and clinicians in an integrated healthcare system in Wisconsin collaborated to develop Heart Health MobileTM (HHM), designed to improve awareness of cardiovascular disease risk and promote risk factor control among users. This paper outlines the development processes and highlights key lessons learned for mobile health applications. An agile project management methodology was used to dedicate adequate resources and employ adaptive planning and iterative development processes with a self-organized, cross-functional team. The initial HHM iOS app was developed and tested, and after additional modifications, gamified and HTML 5 versions of the app were released. The development of an iOS app is low in cost and sustainable by a healthcare system. Future app modifications to enhance data security and link self-reported cardiovascular risk assessment data to patient medical records may improve performance, patient relevance, and clinician acceptance of HHM in the primary-care setting. Legal and institutional barriers regarding the capture and analyses of protected health information must be mitigated to fully capture, analyze, and report patient health outcomes for future studies.

scholarly journals Cognitive mapping as an approach to facilitate organ donation among African Americans

2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (3) ◽  
pp. 003685042110294
Author(s):  
Jayme E Locke ◽  
Rhiannon D Reed ◽  
Richard M Shewchuk ◽  
Katherine L Stegner ◽  
Haiyan Qu
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Organ Donation ◽  
Cognitive Mapping ◽  
The United States ◽  
Two Dimensions ◽  
Nominal Group ◽  
Solid Organ ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Empirical Framework

Making up 13.4% of the United States population, African Americans (AAs) account for 28.7% of candidates who are currently waiting for an organ donation. AAs are disproportionately affected by end-organ disease, particularly kidney disease, therefore, the need for transplantation among this population is high, and the high need is also observed for other solid organ transplantation. To this end, we worked with the AA community to derive an empirical framework of organ donation strategies that may facilitate AA decision-making. We used a cognitive mapping approach involving two distinct phases of primary data collection and a sequence of data analytic procedures to elicit and systematically organize strategies for facilitating organ donation. AA adults ( n = 89) sorted 27 strategies identified from nominal group technique meetings in phase 1 based on their perceived similarities. Sorting data were aggregated and analyzed using Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analyses. Among 89 AA participants, 68.2% were female, 65.5% obtained > high school education, 69.5% reported annual household income ≤ $50,000. The average age was 47.4 years (SD = 14.5). Derived empirical framework consisted of five distinct clusters: fundamental knowledge, psychosocial support, community awareness, community engagement, and system accountability; and two dimensions: Approach, Donor-related Information. The derived empirical framework reflects an organization scheme that may facilitate AA decision-making about organ donation and suggests that targeted dissemination of donor-related information at both the individual-donor and community levels may be critical for increasing donation rates among AAs.

scholarly journals Motivational Application of Standardized Antimicrobial Administration Ratios Within a Healthcare System

2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s321-s321
Author(s):  
Stephanie Shealy ◽  
Joseph Kohn ◽  
Emily Yongue ◽  
Casey Troficanto ◽  
Brandon Bookstaver ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Patient Care ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Antimicrobial Stewardship ◽  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
The United States ◽  
Antimicrobial Use ◽  
Gram Positive ◽  
Specific Patient ◽  
Antimicrobial Administration

Background: Hospitals in the United States have been encouraged to report antimicrobial use (AU) to the CDC NHSN since 2011. Through the NHSN Antimicrobial Use Option module, health systems may compare standardized antimicrobial administration ratios (SAARs) across specific facilities, patient care locations, time periods, and antimicrobial categories. To date, participation in the NHSN Antimicrobial Use Option remains voluntary and the value of reporting antimicrobial use and receiving monthly SAARs to multihospital healthcare systems has not been clearly demonstrated. In this cohort study. we examined potential applications of SAAR within a healthcare system comprising multiple local hospitals. Methods: Three hospitals within Prisma Health-Midlands (hospitals A, B, and C) became participants in the NHSN Antimicrobial Use Option in July 2017. SAAR reports were presented initially in October 2017 and regularly (every 3–4 months) thereafter during interprofessional antimicrobial stewardship system-wide meetings until end of study in June 2019. Through interfacility comparisons and by analyzing SAAR categories in specific patient-care locations, primary healthcare providers and pharmacists were advised to incorporate results into focused antimicrobial stewardship initiatives within their facility. Specific alerts were designed to promote early de-escalation of antipseudomonal β-lactams and vancomycin. The Student t test was used to compare mean SAAR in the preintervention period (July through October 2017) to the postintervention period (November 2017 through June 2019) for all antimicrobials and specific categories and locations within each hospital. Results: During the preintervention period, mean SAAR for all antimicrobials in hospitals A, B, and C were 0.69, 1.09, and 0.60, respectively. Notably, mean SAARs at hospitals A, B, and C in intensive care units (ICU) during the preintervention period were 0.67, 1.36, and 0.83 for broad-spectrum agents used for hospital-onset infections and 0.59, 1.27, and 0.68, respectively, for agents used for resistant gram-positive infections. After antimicrobial stewardship interventions, mean SAARs for all antimicrobials in hospital B decreased from 1.09 to 0.83 in the postintervention period (P < .001). Mean SAARs decreased from 1.36 to 0.81 for broad-spectrum agents used for hospital-onset infections and from 1.27 to 0.72 for agents used for resistant gram-positive infections in ICU at hospital B (P = .03 and P = .01, respectively). No significant changes were noted in hospitals A and C. Conclusions: Reporting AU to the CDC NHSN and the assessment of SAARs across hospitals in a healthcare system had motivational effects on antimicrobial stewardship practices. Enhancement and customization of antimicrobial stewardship interventions was associated with significant and sustained reductions in SAARs for all antimicrobials and specific antimicrobial categories at those locations.Funding: NoneDisclosures: None

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