Patterns of Health Services Utilization in Rural Canada

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
RW Pong ◽  
M DesMeules ◽  
D Heng ◽  
C Lagacé ◽  
JR Guernsey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Access To Health Services ◽  
Research Project ◽  
The Public

Canadians value ease of access to their health services. Although many studies have focused on accessibility to health services in Canada, few have examined rural-urban differences in this aspect, particularly from a national perspective. Yet disparities in access to health services exist between rural and urban populations, as do the challenges of delivering health care to more remote areas or to those with small populations. “Canada’s Rural Communities: Understanding Rural Health and Its Determinants” is a three-year research project co-funded by the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI) of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). It involves investigators from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (CRaNHR) at Laurentian University, and other researchers. The first publication of the research project was How Healthy Are Rural Canadians? An Assessment of Their Health Status and Health Determinants;Footnote 1a1a this, the second publication, is a descriptive analysis of the utilization patterns of a broad range of health services by rural residents compared to their urban counterparts.

scholarly journals A guideline on how to synthesize knowledge by reviews at the Public Health Agency of Sweden

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Månsdotter ◽  
K Godoy ◽  
K Guldbrandsson ◽  
R Henriksson ◽  
S Löfdahl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
The Public

scholarly journals Large outbreak of tularaemia, central Sweden, July to September 2019

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (42) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rikard Dryselius ◽  
Marika Hjertqvist ◽  
Signar Mäkitalo ◽  
Anders Lindblom ◽  
Tobias Lilja ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
The Public ◽  
Large Outbreak

On 31 of July 2019, the Public Health Agency of Sweden was alerted about an increasing number of tularaemia cases in Gävleborg, a county in central Sweden. The number of cases increased thereafter peaking at about 150 reports of illnesses every week. As at 6 October, a total of 979 cases (734 laboratory-confirmed) have been reported, mainly from counties in central Sweden. The outbreak is now considered over (as at 14 October).

scholarly journals Leveraging public health's participation in a Health Information Exchange to improve communicable disease reporting

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Painter ◽  
Debra Revere ◽  
P. Joseph Gibson ◽  
Janet Baseman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Mean

Background: Infectious diseases can appear and spread rapidly. Timely information about disease patterns and trends allows public health agencies to quickly investigate and efficiently contain those diseases. But disease case reporting to public health has traditionally been paper-based, resulting in somewhat slow, burdensome processes. Fortunately, the expanding use of electronic health records and health information exchanges has created opportunities for more rapid, complete, and easily managed case reporting and investigation. To assess how this new service might impact the efficiency and quality of a public health agency's case investigations, we compared the timeliness of usual case investigation to that of case investigations based on case report forms that were partially pre-populated with electronic data. Intervention: Between September 2013-March 2014, chlamydia disease report forms for certain clinics in Indianapolis were electronically pre-populated with clinical, lab and patient data available through the Indiana Health Information Exchange, then provided to the patient’s doctor. Doctors could then sign the form and deliver it to public health for investigation and population-level disease tracking. Methods: We utilized a novel matched case analysis of timeliness changes in receipt and processing of communicable disease report forms. Each Chlamydia cases reported with the pre-populated form were matched to cases reported in usual ways. We assessed the time from receipt of the case at the public health agency: 1) inclusion of the case into the public health surveillance system and 2) to close to case. A hierarchical random effects model was used to compare mean difference in each outcome between the target cases and the matched cases, with random intercepts for case. Results: Twenty-one Chlamydia cases were reported to the public health agency using the pre-populated form. Sixteen of these pre-populated form cases were matched to at least one other case, with a mean of 23 matches per case. The mean Reporting Lag for the pre-populated form cases was 2.5 days, which was 2.7 days shorter than the mean Reporting Lag for the matched controls (p = <0.001). The mean time to close a pre-populated form case was 4.7 days, which was 0.2 days shorter than time to close for the matched controls (p = 0.792). Conclusions: Use of pre-populated forms significantly decreased the time it took for the local public health agency to begin documenting and closing chlamydia case investigations. Thoughtful use of electronic health data for case reporting may decrease the per-case workload of public health agencies, and improve the timeliness of information about the pattern and spread of disease.

scholarly journals Medical certificate of disability: a descriptive analysis of Aveiro region, from 2010 to 2016

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
R Sá ◽  
J Matos
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Cohort Effect ◽  
Medical Professional ◽  
Public Health Services ◽  
Medical Certificate ◽  
The Public ◽  
Task Distribution ◽  
Or Task

Abstract Background In Portugal, Public Health Physicians attribute the medical certificate of disability (MCD). This document is mainly used for fiscal benefits or from other kind, as priority parking card and non-medical public services are increasing its requirement. The threshold to determine benefits is 60% of incapacity by law. Oncological, musculoskeletal and psychiatric diseases account for most of the cases. This activity is highly time-consuming and is not part of the Essential Public Health Operations or the competences of Public Health Physicians according to the Medical Professional Order. The aim of this study is to characterize the evolution of this procedure and the obtained incapacity values from 2010 to 2016 in the Public Health Unit of Baixo Vouga Primary Healthcare Cluster. Methods A descriptive analysis was made with the registers of production of MCD in four municipalities of the Aveiro Region from 2010 to 2016. Results An increase in the number of MCD was verified, going from 274 in 2010 to 550 in 2016, in a total of 3087. Two thousand and fifteen was the year with the greatest frequencies, with 632 certificates. The median value of incapacity was 60% (64% of total MCDs), with an interquartile amplitude of 12, varying from 6% to 99%. Incapacity values have an increasing tendency over the years, showing a cohort effect. Conclusions The increase of MCD reflects an enormous burden for the Public Health Services that consequently have fewer resources to deal with Essential Public Health Operations. Human resources or task distribution should be rethought in order to respond to population's needs. Cohort effects might be explained by the law-fixed re-evaluation, required every 5 years for oncological cases. In fact, this incapacity is the main cause of requirement of the MCD. Further studies should address this problematic in order to better organize the health services and understand the effectiveness of this procedure. Key messages The number of issued MCD is growing, overloading Health Services. The median incapacity is 60%, which is the threshold to attribute benefits. Further investigation is needed to address this issue.

scholarly journals Who Follows the Rules During a Crisis?—Personality Traits and Trust as Predictors of Compliance With Containment Recommendations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Schmeisser ◽  
Emma A. Renström ◽  
Hanna Bäck
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Interesting Case ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Public

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, many governments tried to contain the spread of the virus by legally restricting social life and imposing national lockdowns. The Swedish government did not enforce a national lockdown, but instead appealed to the individual’s self-responsibility to follow specific containment recommendations developed by the Swedish Public Health Agency. Sweden is thus an especially interesting case to study because of the potential influence of psychological and attitudinal individual-level factors that might contribute to compliance with containment recommendations. Drawing on previous literature on how individuals respond during health crises, we define and evaluate a mediation model that considers the role of personality traits and trust authorities to explain compliance. More specifically, we argue that we need to consider the role of trust in authorities to better understand the relationship between personality traits and compliance. In analyses based on a large-scale representative survey (N = 1,034), we find Conscientiousness to be directly linked to compliance, whereas Agreeableness, Neuroticism and Openness were indirectly related to compliance when trust in the Public Health Agency was taken into account.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document