Quality of Health Care for Medicare Beneficiaries: A Chartbook

Provides the results of a review of recently published studies and reports about the quality of health care for elderly Medicare beneficiaries. Includes examples of deficiencies and disparities in care, and some promising quality improvement initiatives

Investigating Patient Outcome Measures in Mental Health

This report examines the feasibility of incorporating patient outcomes in mental health into a productivity measure. It examines which outcome measures are most commonly used in mental health, the practical issues about collecting these outcome measures, whether they can be converted into a generic measure, whether there is a time series of data available, and whether the data exists to examine changes in the mix of treatments over time. The criteria that were assumed to be important for an outcome measure to be included in a productivity index, were that it should have wide coverage, should be routinely collected, could readily be linked to activity data, could potentially be converted to a generic outcome measure, and would be available as a time-series. The report focuses predominantly on mental health outcomes within the working age population. Literature searches on outcome measurement in mental health covered numerous databases and retrieved over 1500 records. Around 170 full papers were obtained.

Treating Adult Women With Depression Through Videoconferencing

The occurrence of depression in the United States is steadily increasing. In every age group, women have a higher rate of depression than men, and U.S. women between the ages of 40 and 59 have a depression rate of 12%. Adult women living in rural areas experience physical and/or psychological impairment and lack access to mental health treatment. The purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine participants\u27 preferences for treatment delivery method based on patient perceptions of the clinical experience, patient satisfaction, and therapeutic bond. The working alliance theory provided the theoretical foundation. Data collection included survey responses from a self-selected sample of 264 adult females ages 40 to 65. Results from independent sample t tests indicated that participants favored CBT treatment delivered via videoconferencing more than in-person treatment. Implications for social change include improving the lives of adult women suffering from depression by providing treatment via videoconferencing when in-person services are not available. Psychologists may apply findings in clinical practice, thereby benefiting individuals, families, and communities