Treating Opioid Addiction With Buprenorphine-Naloxone in Community-Based Primary Care Settings
By Ira L. Mintzer, M.D., et al.
HEART ATTACK MORTALITY SAME IN RURAL AND URBAN HOSPITALS AFTER ACCOUNTING FOR PATIENT DIFFERENCES
Death from heart attack in rural hospitals in Iowa is not higher than that in urban hospitals after taking into account unmeasured patient factors that may have been left out of previous analyses. The authors point out that this study confirms earlier studies that show patients with heart attack admitted to rural hospitals were significantly older and sicker than their counterparts admitted to urban hospitals, and that rural hospitals, because of their size and limited personnel, often act as triage hospitals. This provides, the authors assert, evidence to support the continued importance of rural hospitals and their role in caring for patients with heart attack.
Myocardial Infarction Mortality in Rural and Urban Hospitals: Rethinking Measures of Quality of Care
By Paul A. James, M.D., et al.
STANDARDIZED PATIENTS PROVIDE INSIGHT INTO PATIENT COMMUNICATION
Standardized patients people trained to portray a specific patient case and visit a doctor unannounced as a method of rating doctors' communications skills represent an objective means for assessment of physician communication that provides different and complementary information than studying real patients. In comparing real and standardized
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Contact: Kristin Robinson
kristinr@aafp.org
913-906-6000, ext. 5221
American Academy of Family Physicians
26-Mar-2007