Case for investment in tobacco cessation: a population-based analysis in low- and middle-income countries.

This study aimed to estimate the return on investments of three population-level tobacco cessation strategies and three pharmacological interventions. The analysis included 124 low- and middle-income countries, and assumed a 10-year investment period (2021-2030). The results indicate that all six cessation programmes could help about 152 million tobacco users quit and save 2.

Effect of comprehensive smoke-free legislation on the tourism industry in countries of the Caribbean Community.

Objective: To assess whether the introduction of comprehensive smoke-free legislation affected tourism in four Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries - Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Methods: We compared the evolution of three tourism variables - tourist arrivals, tourist expenditure, and average length of stay - in a country implementing smoke-free environments (treated country) with the evolution of these variables in the same country if smoke-free legislation had not been implemented. We used a synthetic control method to recreate this counterfactual scenario by constructing a synthetic country using a weighted average of several donor-pool CARICOM countries that did not introduce legislation on smoke-free environments during the period analyzed.

The relationship between hospital adoption and use of high technology medical imaging and in-patient mortality and length of stay.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between hospital adoption and use of computed tomography (CT) scanners, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines and in-patient mortality and length of stay.

Design/methodology/approach: This study used panel data (2007-2010) from 124 hospital corporations operating in Ontario, Canada. Imaging use focused on medical patients accounting for 25 percent of hospital discharges.

Adoption of high technology medical imaging and hospital quality and efficiency: Towards a conceptual framework.

Measuring the value of medical imaging is challenging, in part, due to the lack of conceptual frameworks underlying potential mechanisms where value may be assessed. To address this gap, this article proposes a framework that builds on the large body of literature on quality of hospital care and the classic structure-process-outcome paradigm. The framework was also informed by the literature on adoption of technological innovations and introduces 2 distinct though related aspects of imaging technology not previously addressed specifically in the literature on quality of hospital care: adoption (a structural hospital characteristic) and use (an attribute of the process of care).

Diabetes risk reduction in primary care: Evaluation of the Ontario Primary Care Diabetes Prevention Program.

Objectives: Lifestyle interventions can reduce type 2 diabetes risk. The Primary Care Diabetes Prevention Program (PCDPP) was implemented by the Government of Ontario to lower diabetes risk. This study first evaluated the program, and second used a validated tool to estimate a potential population impact if the program were implemented more broadly in the province.

The combined use of surgery and radiotherapy to treat patients with epidural cord compression due to metastatic disease: a cost-utility analysis.

Neoplastic metastatic epidural spinal cord compression is a common complication of cancer that causes pain and progressive neurologic impairment. The previous standard treatment for this condition involved corticosteroids and radiotherapy (RT). Direct decompressive surgery with postoperative radiotherapy (S + RT) is now increasingly being chosen by clinicians to significantly improve patients' ability to walk and reduce their need for opioid analgesics and corticosteroids.

CEO compensation and hospital financial performance.

Growing interest in pay-for-performance and the level of chief executive officers' (CEOs') pay raises questions about the link between performance and compensation in the health sector. This study compares the compensation of nonprofit hospital CEOs in Ontario, Canada to the three longest reported and most used measures of hospital financial performance. Our sample consisted of 132 CEOs from 92 hospitals between 1999 and 2006.

Where to focus efforts to improve overall ratings of care and willingness to return: the case of Tuscan emergency departments.

Objectives: Both regression and optimization models were used to identify an efficient combination of aspects of care (e.g., comfort of waiting room) necessary to improve global emergency department (ED) patient satisfaction.

Comparing patient reports about hospital care across a Canadian-US border.

Objective: To compare patient reports about hospital care between western New York State and southern Ontario using a random intercept model.

Method: Cross-sectional survey of 3923 patients who received medical or surgical care between August and October 2004 at 28 hospitals (14 hospitals per jurisdiction). Thirty-five questions were combined to calculate eight indicators with scores ranging from 0 to 100 (best care experience).

Sustained public preferences on hospital performance across Canadian provinces.

Objectives: To compare the Canadian public's view of various components of hospital performance at two points in time, and to investigate differences across provinces.

Methods: Random telephone interviews were conducted across Canada in 2001 and again in 2004. Respondents were asked to rate the importance of 10 aspects of hospital performance including coordination, skills of providers, the use of technology, medical errors, and waiting times.

Acute care hospital strategic priorities: perceptions of challenges, control, competition and collaboration in Ontario's evolving healthcare system.

To explore the current and pending strategic agenda of Ontario hospitals (the largest consumers of the provincial healthcare budget), a survey of Ontario acute care hospital CEOs was conducted in January 2004. The survey, with an 82% response rate, identifies 29 strategic priorities under seven key strategic themes consistent across different hospital types. These themes include (1) human resources cultivation, (2) service integration and partnerships, (3) consumer engagement, (4) corporate governance and management, (5) organizational efficiency and redesign, (6) improved information use for decision-making, (7) patient care management.

Developing an efficient model to select emergency department patient satisfaction improvement strategies.

Study Objective: Patient satisfaction is an important performance measure for emergency departments (EDs), but the most efficient ways of improving satisfaction are unclear. This study uses optimization techniques to identify the best possible combination of predictors of overall patient satisfaction to help guide improvement efforts.

Methods: The results of a satisfaction survey from 20,500 patients who visited 123 EDs were used to develop ordinal logistic regression models for overall quality of care, overall medical treatment, willingness to recommend the ED to others, and willingness to return to the same ED.