Facts about Funerals

Facts about funerals discusses preplanning, funeral directors, costs, standard services burial costs, advertised complete funerals, cemetery lots, markets and monuments, shipping the body, prearranging and prefinancing funerals, insurance, letters of last instruction, public welfare burial assistance, and post-death matters

Describing Pediatric Hospital Discharge Planning Care Processes Using the Omaha System

Purpose Although discharge planning (DP) is recognized as a critical component of hospital care, national initiatives have focused on older adults, with limited focus on pediatric patients. We aimed to describe patient problems and targeted interventions as documented by social workers or DP nurses providing specialized DP services in a children\u27s hospital. Methods Text from 67 clinical notes for 28 patients was mapped to a standardized terminology (Omaha System). Data were deductively analyzed. Results A total of 517 phrases were mapped. Eleven of the 42 Omaha System problems were identified. The most frequent problem was health care supervision (297/517; 57.4%). Three Omaha System intervention categories were used (teaching, guidance, and counseling; case management; and surveillance). Intervention targets are varied by role. Conclusion The findings provide a rich description of the nature of DP for complex pediatric patients and increase our understanding of the work of DP staff and the influence of the DP practice model

Does long-term care use within primary health care reduce hospital use among older people in Norway? A national five-year population-based observational study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Population ageing may threaten the sustainability of future health care systems. Strengthening primary health care, including long-term care, is one of several measures being taken to handle future health care needs and budgets. There is limited and inconsistent evidence on the effect of long-term care on hospital use. We explored the relationship between the total use of long-term care within public primary health care in Norway and the use of hospital beds when adjusting for various effect modifiers and confounders.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>This national population-based observational study consists of all Norwegians (59% women) older than 66 years (N = 605676) (13.2% of total population) in 2002-2006. The unit of analysis was defined by municipality, age and sex. The association between total number of recipients of long-term care per 1000 inhabitants (LTC-rate) and hospital days per 1000 inhabitants (HD-rate) was analysed in a linear regression model. Modifying and confounding effects of socioeconomic, demographic and geographic variables were included in the final model. We defined a difference in hospitalization rates of more than 1000 days per 1000 inhabitants as clinically important.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Thirty-one percent of women and eighteen percent of men were long-term care users. Men had higher HD-rates than women. The crude association between LTC-rate and HD-rate was weakly negative. We identified two effect modifiers (age and sex) and two strong confounders (travel time to hospital and mortality). Age and sex stratification and adjustments for confounders revealed a positive statistically significant but not clinically important relationship between LTC-rates and hospitalization for women aged 67-79 years and all men. For women 80 years and over there was a weak but negative relationship which was neither statistically significant nor clinically important.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We found a weak positive adjusted association between LTC-rates and HD-rates. Opposite to common belief, we found that increased volume of LTC by itself did not reduce pressure on hospitals. There still is a need to study integrated care models for the elderly in the Norwegian setting and to explore further why municipalities far away from hospital achieve lower use of hospital beds.</p

The Effects of the Corporate, Private and Government Sectors on the History of Art Education in American Schools

The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of corporate America on the presentation of art education throughout the history of American public education. The needs of Industrial America forced the entry of art into the curriculum in 1870. Over the years art has been justified and offered to serve numerous ends. Art education has prepared draftsmen for industry and crafts, trained a moral citizenry, promoted creativity and self-expression and provided aesthetic understanding of the nature of beauty. As these needs evolve to the philosophic end of the spectrum the arts are perceived as less functional to the students and less able to service the needs of corporate America, therefore less valuable as a required course