Rachel Goldwag, MSW, Ayelet Berg, PhD, Dan Yuval, PhD and Jochanan Benbassat, MD
Background: Patient feedback is increasingly being used to assess the quality of healthcare.
Objective: To identify modifiable independent determinants of patient dissatisfaction with hospital emergency care.
Methods: The study group comprised a random sample of 3,152 of the 65,966 adult Israeli citizens discharged during November 1999 from emergency departments in 17 of the 32 acute care hospitals in Israel. A total of 2,543 (81%) responded to a telephone survey tht used a structured questionnaire. The ndependent variables included: hospital characteristics, patient demographic variables, patient perception of care, self-rated health status, problem severity, and outcome of care. The dependent variable was dissatisfaction with overall ED experience on a 1–5 Likert-type scale dichotomized into not satisfied (4 and 5) and satisfied (1,2 and 3).
Results: Eleven percent of the population reported being dissatisfied with their emergency room visit. Univariate analyses revealed that dissatisfaction was significantly related to ethnic group, patient education, hospital identity and geographic location, perceived comfort of ED facilities, registration expediency, waiting times, perceived competence and attitudes of caregivers, explanations provided, self-rated health status, and resolution of the problem that led to referral to the ED. Multivariate analyses using logistic regressions indicated that the four most powerful predictors of dissatisfaction were patient perception of doctor competence and attitudes, outcomes of care, ethnicity, and self-rated health status.
Conclusions: Attempts to reduce dissatisfaction with emergency care should focus on caregiver conduct and attitudes. It may also be useful to improve caregiver communication skills, specifically with ethnic minorities and with patients who rate their health status as poor.
Fabio Broglio, MD, Emanuela Arvat, MD, Andrea Benso, MD, Cristina Gottero, MD, Flavia Prodam, MD, Riccarda Granata, PhD, Mauro Papotti, MD, Giampiero Muccioli, PhD, Romano Deghenghi, PhD and Ezio Ghigo, MD
Ghrelin, a 28 amino acid acylated peptide predominantly produced by the stomach, displays strong growth hormone-releasing activity mediated by the hypothalamus-pituitary GH secretagogue receptors that were found to be specific for a family of synthetic, orally active GH secretagogues. The discovery of ghrelin brings us to a new understanding of the regulation of GH secretion. However, ghrelin is much more than simply a natural GH secretagogue. It also acts on other central and peripheral receptors and exhibits other actions, including stimulation of lactotroph and corticotroph secretion, orexigenia, influences gastroenteropancreatic functions, and has metabolic, cardiovascular and anti-proliferative effects. Knowledge of the whole spectrum of biologic activities of this new hormone will provide new understanding of some critical aspects of neuroscience, metabolism and internal medicine. In fact, GHS were born more than 20 years ago as synthetic molecules, eliciting the hope that orally active GHS could be used to treat GH deficiency as an alternative to recombinant human GH. However, the dream did not become reality and the usefulness of GHS as an anabolic anti-aging intervention restoring the GH/IGF-I axis in somatopause is still unclear. Instead, we now face the theoretic possibility that GHS analogues acting as agonists or antagonists could become candidate drugs for the treatment of pathophysiologic conditions in internal medicine totally unrelated to disorders of GH secretion.
Gerard Espinosa, MD, Ricard Cervera, MD, PhD, Joan-Carles Reverter, MD, PhD, Dolors Tassies, MD, PhD, Josep Font, MD, PhD and Miguel Ingelmo, MD, PhD
Wendy Chen, MSW, Ruth Balaban, MA, RN, Varda Stanger, PhD, Ra’aya Haruvi, MSW, Shmuel Zur, MD and Arie Augarten, MD
Rafael Beyar, MD and Luis Gruberg, MD
Emanuel Lebenthal, MD and David Branski, MD
Ilan Krause, MD and Abraham Weinberger, MD
Shai Izraeli, MD and Gideon Rechavi, MD, PhD
Ido Wolf, MD and Rony Seger, PhD
Bella Bielorai, MD, Hana Golan, MD, Gideon Rechavi, MD, PhD and Amos Toren, MD
Stuart A. Becker, MD, Reuven Eliger, MD and Victor Buyeuiz, MD
Isabelle Korn-Lubetzki, MD, Yelena Virozub, MD and Hedi Orbach, MD
Shabtai Varsano, MD
Asthma in Israel is a growing medical problem, affecting at least 7% of children and 3.7% of the total population. Mortality rates in the age group 5-34 years were on a rise between 1976 and 1990 but show a marked decrease in recent years, perhaps due to the sharp increase in sales of inhaled corticosteroids. There is also a recent indication that the relatively high crude mortality rate among women is declining (from 3.68 and 4.58 per 100,000 in 1997). In spite of better asthma education and management there is still a gap between available medical knowledge and medical therapy and its utilization for benefit of the asthmatic population in Israel.