Introduction: While there has been much discussion in recent years concerning the construction of hospital quality indexes, researchers have often failed to adequately test these quality measures against testable hypotheses. Our objective is to create a quality index using a fixed-effects...

The importance of perception response time (PRT) values for traffic signal change interval design, and the need to monitor the design PRT value, are challenges facing transportation professionals. However, current methods used to validate the design PRT value from on-site observational studies...

Introduction: From 2000 to 2004, primary care organisations (PCOs) in England were legally required to operate a prescribing incentive scheme for their general practices. A statutory framework specified the types of target, maximum rewards and use of `good cause for failure' provisions that...

Health policy has shifted towards placing a greater emphasis on the role of lifestyle and life circumstances in improving health. The factors that are associated with poor health status are known, but the comparative effectiveness of specific policy interventions in improving health and reducing...

Background: The debate on access to new drugs has focused on the time lag between applications for approval and granting of marketing authorisation. This delay was identified as the first barrier with respect to patient access to new drugs, encompassing the hurdles of safety, efficacy and...

Objectives: To illustrate how conjoint analysis can be used to identify patient preferences for healthcare policies, and to measure preferences for healthcare reforms in Hungary. Data source/study setting: Data was collected via a mail-based survey and a direct survey administered in a...

Debate over healthcare often focuses on two key issues: quality and cost. However, because of the unique characteristics of healthcare, this relationship is not as simple as it might seem. A recent Supreme Court of Canada judgement directly addressing aspects of quality of care, combined with...

Background: While the number of GP services provided in Australia increased steadily from the inception of Medicare in 1984 until the mid 1990s, it declined by 6.6% from 1997-8 to 2003-4. This reflects a decline in average number of services provided per GP of 8.0%. In Australia, as in the US...

The prioritisation approach at the heart of the health reform movement not only failed to improve access to services for the very poor but was based on poor methods. Its notion of efficiency ignored local contexts, the interaction of interventions and local specification of needs. The authors...

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is, at least in part, associated with high antimicrobial usage and causes increased morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs. However, policies to contain AMR focus on `micro' interventions - typically in one institution (usually a hospital)....