Positive health: the human right to health care under the New York State Constitution.
I. INTRODUCTION In his first State of the State address, former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer recognized the urgent need to "reform our health care system." (1) He explained that "when 2.8 million New Yorkers can't afford health insurance, that affects not only them and their families,...

Health reform in Alberta: the introduction of health regions.
Abstract: In 1994, the Government of Alberta passed the Regional Health Authorities Act to abolish nearly 200 existing local hospital and public health boards and replace them with seventeen regional health authorities. Consistent with the larger fiscal agenda, the government's intention was to address health-care system efficiency through larger...

Preparing teacher-scholars to reduce health disparities.
ABSTRACT Health disparities are a major public health problem in the United States. Doctorally prepared nurse scholars, who understand factors contributing to these disparities, possess research competence to study these factors, and pose strategies to be tested are essential to improve the health of these vulnerable populations. This article...

Is managed care leading to consolidation in health-care markets?
There has recently been substantial consolidation among health-care providers in the United States. In 1980, most hospitals were freestanding, independent organizations. By 1996,40 percent of all community hospitals were members of a system and 26 percent were members of networks (American Hospital Association 1998). In the mid-1980s, more than...

Periodontal diseases and adverse pregnancy outcomes: a review of the evidence and implications for clinical practice.
Abstract Periodontal diseases affect the majority of the population either as gingivitis or periodontitis. Recently there have been many studies that link or seek to find a relationship between periodontal disease and other systemic diseases including, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. For adverse pregnancy...

Benchmarking Australia's mental health services: is it possible and useful?
Abstract Background: Benchmarking of performance indicators in the mental health field is gaining currency in Australia as a strategy for improving service quality. Aim: To engage mental health service providers in the collection and evaluation of performance data. Methods: Three separate rounds of...

ETHICAL DILEMMAS IN HOME HEALTH CARE: A Social Work Perspective.
The survey in this article examined several factors related to the frequency and difficulty of resolving four ethical conflicts in a national sample of 364 home health care social workers. Ethical conflicts regarding the assessment of mental competence, self-determination, and access to services were moderately frequent and difficult to...

Health care reform in the 2008 presidential primaries.
As noted previously in this journal, health care reform has again become a central political issue (Gorin & Moniz, 2007). This article examines the health care debate in the presidential primary campaigns and considers implications for future health policy. As of this writing, no candidate on either side has...

Poverty & health: criticality of public financing.
Countries with universal or near universal access to healthcare have health financing mechanisms which are single-payer systems in which either a single autonomous public agency or a few coordinated agencies pool resources to finance healthcare. This contributes to both equity in healthcare as well as to low levels of...

Sexual trauma tied to PTSD in female veterans.
ALBUQUERQUE -- Sexual trauma is the primary cause of posttraumatic stress disorder in female veterans, according to a psychologist who provides care at a trauma clinic for female veterans in New Mexico. Diane T. Castillo, Ph.D., estimates that 80%-90% of female veterans who walk into the Women's...