Pretravel preparation and factors associated with willingness to seek pretravel consultation among Taiwanese travelers.

BACKGROUND: Although globalization promotes economic development, cross-border infectious disease transmission is still a serious threat to health. Taiwan is geographically close to Southeast and South Asia, but the needs and expectations of Taiwanese travelers with regard to travel medicine are still largely unknown. This study aimed to clarify the pretravel preparations, needs, willingness to seek pretravel consultation, and factors associated with willingness, in order to provide valuable information for improvement of healthcare service. METHODS: Data were collected with anonymous structured questionnaires distributed to 477 visitors who tried to get travel health information from New Southbound Health Center between June and November 2019. A multivariate stepwise logistic regression analysis was applied to identify factors associated with the visitors' willingness to seek pretravel consultation. RESULTS: A total of 304 questionnaires (64%) were collected. Eighty-three percent of the respondents were willing to seek pretravel consultation. A higher level of education (odds ratio 3.6 [95% CI 1.58-8.22]), having a plan to obtain travel medical insurance (2.5 [1.18-5.28]), concern with gastrointestinal diseases (2.0 [1.04-3.94]), concern with mosquito-borne diseases (2.0 [2.07-3.95]), and concern with noncommunicable diseases (2.2 [1.02-4.96]) were independent factors associated with willingness to seek pretravel consultation.: CONCLUSIONS: We found that most of the travelers were willing to seek pretravel consultation. Our study highlighted the need to enhance awareness about travel-related illness among these travelers. Strategies should be tailored according to these findings to help prevent epidemics and improve healthcare service in the future.

Awareness of, attitude toward, and willingness to participate in pay for performance programs among family physicians: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: The National Health Insurance Administration of Taiwan has introduced several pay-for-performance programs to improve the quality of healthcare. This study aimed to provide government with evidence-based research findings to help primary care physicians to actively engage in pay-for-performance programs. METHODS: We conducted a questionnaire survey among family physicians with age-stratified sampling from September 2016 to December 2017. The structured questionnaire consisted of items including the basic demographics of the surveyee and their awareness of and attitudes toward the strengths and/or weaknesses of the pay-for-performance programs, as well as their subjective norms, and the willingness to participate in the pay-for-performance programs. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analysis were performed to compare the differences between family physicians who participate in the pay-for-performance programs versus those who did not. RESULTS: A total of 543 family physicians completed the questionnaire. Among family physicians who participated in the pay-for-performance programs, more had joined the Family Practice Integrated Care Project [Odds ratio (OR): 2.70; 95% Confidence interval (CI): 1.78 ~ 4.09], had a greater awareness of pay-for-performance programs (OR: 2.37; 95% CI: 1.50 ~ 3.83), and a less negative attitude to pay-for-performance programs (OR: 0.50; 95% CI: 0.31 ~ 0.80) after adjusting for age and gender. The major reasons for family physicians who decided to join the pay-for-performance programs included believing the programs help enhance the quality of healthcare (80.8%) and recognizing the benefit of saving health expenditure (63.4%). The causes of unwillingness to join in a pay-for-performance program among non-participants were increased load of administrative works (79.6%) and inadequate understanding of the contents of the pay-for-performance programs (62.9%). CONCLUSIONS: To better motivate family physicians into P4P participation, hosting effective training programs, developing a more transparent formula for assessing financial risk, providing sufficient budget for healthcare quality improvement, and designing a reasonable profit-sharing plan to promote collaboration between different levels of medical institutions are all imperative.

Family physician system in Taiwan.

Following economic development and increasing healthcare demand, Taiwan has not only built a universal healthcare coverage payment system in 1995, but has also developed an accountable family physician system, called the Family Practice Integrated Care Project (FPICP), to deal with the pressures of an ageing society, since 2003. The community healthcare group-based family physician system is not only an important milestone for the development of family medicine in Taiwan but may also even serve as a global example for future family doctor systems. In this review, we aim to review the development of family medicine in Taiwan, the implementation and achievement of the FPICP, as well as the future prospects of system-based healthcare system. We firmly believe that only when the family physician system is well developed and put into practice with person-centered, family as a care unit, and community-oriented holistic care, can the objective of "everyone has their own family doctor" and sustainable operation of National Health Insurance be achieved.

Tour leaders with detailed knowledge of travel-related diseases play a key role in disease prevention.

In Taiwan, group tours are a popular mode of international travel; hence, group tour leaders must ensure traveler safety and health. This study identified factors influencing tour leaders' willingness to recommend pretravel medical consultation and vaccination.A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered to tour leaders from January 2011 to December 2012. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to estimate the odds ratios of having a positive attitude and willingness based on different knowledge scores of the tour leaders after adjustments for age, sex, education level, and seniority.Tour leaders with a more detailed knowledge of both travel-related infectious and noninfectious diseases demonstrated a higher willingness to receive vaccination. They believed that consultation at travel clinics before travel can improve travelers' health (P < .05).This study supports the importance and effectiveness on educating tour leaders' knowledge about travel-related diseases to improve health care for travelers.

A 10-year review of health care reform on Family Practice Integrated Care Project-Taiwan experience.

Objective: Taiwan has launched a Family Practice Integrated Care Project (FPICP) to develop an accountable family doctor system since March 2003. We aim to report the effectiveness of this nationwide demonstration programme over a 10-year period. Methods: Papers and reports related to the FPICP published both in English and in Chinese from 2003 to 2015 were collected systematically based on keywords including 'family doctor', 'primary care', 'integrated care' and 'Taiwan'. Also collected and reviewed were national health insurance administration annual reports and related publications from Taiwan Association of Family Medicine. Quality care indicators including structure, process and outcome for programme monitoring were reported. Results: Up to June 2015, the project had enrolled a total of 10.5% of Taiwan's population. Approximately 24.9% of primary care physicians and 29.7% of community clinics joined the project to serve the members of 426 community health care groups (CHCGs). Compared to non-members, CHCG members received more preventive care services, especially in adult health examination (49% versus 19%), Pap smear (29% versus 22%), elderly influenza vaccination (42% versus 28%) and immunochemical faecal occult blood test (43% versus 31%) (P < 0.01). Members showed a markedly high level of satisfaction (>95%), especially in overall satisfaction, provision of health consultation and information, and improvement in understanding personal health condition. Conclusions: In the future, through the support of family physicians and CHCGs, a person-centred integrated health care delivery system can be an effective solution to the current barriers in the medical care system.

Medical care utilization and costs on end-of-life cancer patients: The role of hospice care.

Although there are 3 hospice care programs for terminal cancer patients in Taiwan, the medical utilization and expenses for these patients by programs have not been well-explored. The aim of this study was to examine the medical utilization and expenses of terminal cancer patients under different programs of hospice care in the last 90, 30, and 14 days of life.This was a retrospective observational study by secondary data analysis. By using the National Health Insurance claim database and Hospice Shared Care Databases. We identified cancer descents from these databases and classified them into nonhospice care and hospice care groups based on different combination of hospice care received. We then analyzed medical utilization including inpatient care, outpatient care, emergency room visits, and medical expenses by patient groups in the last 90, 30, and 14 days of life.Among 118,376 cancer descents, 46.9% ever received hospice care. Patients had ever received hospice care had significantly lower average medical utilization and expenses in their last 90, 30, and 14 days of life (all P < 0.001) compared to nonhospice care group. Each hospice care group had significantly less medical utilization and expenses in the last 90, 30, and 14 days of life (all P < 0.01).Different kinds of hospice care program have different effects on medical care utilization reduction and cost-saving at different stage of the end of life of terminal cancer patients.

Change of government's subsidization policy improves smoking cessation services: a cross-sectional study from the perspectives of physicians.

BACKGROUND: The Taiwanese government increased financial subsidies for smoking cessation services in 2012. We aimed to evaluate the effects of this new policy on smoking cessation services from the physician's perspective. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional nationwide survey. Physicians who provided smoking cessation services for more than ten patient encounters in the preceding year of the new policy (February 2011 to March 2012) were recruited. The questionnaire was developed by two experts and was validated by a committee consisting of 11 delegates. RESULTS: We sent a total of 1,319 questionnaires. The response rate was 45.9 %. The majority of respondents were male (88.4 %), middle-aged (65.3 %), and worked as family physicians (56.1 %). Most physicians agreed that the new policy had increased the number of patients seeking smoking cessation, increased patients' willingness to adopt pharmacotherapy, helped physicians to prescribe medications, improved patients' adherence to medications, and improved quality of care. These changes were most prominent in medical centers. Changes in the practice of the 5As (ask, advise, assess, assist, arrange) were moderate. Among different medical settings, the most significant change was an increase in the expenditure on smoking cessation medications. CONCLUSIONS: The new subsidization policy in Taiwan has improved smoking cessation services. Overall, physicians reported positive effects of the new policy. Further study is warranted to evaluate the long-term influence of the policy.

Truth Telling and Treatment Strategies in End-of-Life Care in Physician-Led Accountable Care Organizations: Discrepancies Between Patients' Preferences and Physicians' Perceptions.

Providing patient-centered care from preventive medicine to end-of-life care in order to improve care quality and reduce medical cost is important for accountable care. Physicians in the accountable care organizations (ACOs) are suitable for participating in supportive end-of-life care especially when facing issues in truth telling and treatment strategy. This study aimed to investigate patients' attitudes toward truth telling and treatment preferences in end-of-life care and compare patients' attitudes with their ACOs physicians' perceptions.This nationwide study applied snowball sampling to survey physicians in physician-led ACOs and their contracted patients by questionnaire from August 2010 to July 2011 in Taiwan. The main outcome measures were beliefs about palliative care, attitudes toward truth telling, and treatment preferences.The data of 314 patients (effective response rate = 88.7%) and 177 physicians (88.5%) were analyzed. Regarding truth telling about disease prognosis, 94.3% of patients preferred to be fully informed, whereas only 80% of their physicians had that perception (P < 0.001). Significant differences were also found in attitudes toward truth telling even when encountering terminal disease status (98.1% vs 85.3%). Regarding treatment preferences in terminal illness, nearly 90% of patients preferred supportive care, but only 15.8% of physicians reported that their patients had this preference (P < 0.001).Significant discrepancies exist between patients' preferences and physicians' perceptions toward truth telling and treatment strategies in end-of-life care. It is important to enhance physician-patient communication about end-of-life care preferences in order to achieve the goal of ACOs. Continuing education on communication about end-of-life care during physicians' professional development would be helpful in the reform strategies of establishing accountable care around the world.

Hospice shared-care saved medical expenditure and reduced the likelihood of intensive medical utilization among advanced cancer patients in Taiwan--a nationwide survey.

PURPOSE: Hospice shared care (HSC) is a new care model that has been adopted to treat inpatient advanced cancer patients in Taiwan since 2005. Our aim was to assess the effect of HSC on medical expenditure and the likelihood of intensive medical utilization by advanced cancer patients. METHODS: This is a nationwide retrospective study. HSC was defined as using "Hospice palliative care (HPC) teams to provide consultation and service to advanced cancer patients admitted in the nonhospice care ward." There were 120,481 deaths due to cancer between 2006 and 2008 in Taiwan. Patients receiving HSC were matched by propensity score to patients receiving usual care. Of the 120,481 cancer deaths, 12,137 paired subjects were matched. Medical expenditures for 1 year before death were assessed between groups using a database from the Bureau of National Health Insurance. Paired t and McNemar's tests were applied for comparing the medical expenditure and intensive medical utilization before death between paired groups. RESULTS: Compared to the non-HSC group, subjects receiving HSC had a lower average medical expenditure per person (US$3,939 vs. US$4,664; p<0.001). The HSC group had an adjusted net savings of US$557 (13.3%; p<0.001) in inpatient medical expenditure per person compared with the non-HSC group. Subjects that received different types of HPC had 15.4-44.9% less average medical expenditure per person and significantly lower likelihood of intensive medical utilization than those that did not receive HPC. CONCLUSIONS: HSC is associated with significant medical expenditure savings and reduced likelihood of intensive medical utilization. All types of HPC are associated with medical expenditure savings.

Medical expenditure and family satisfaction between hospice and general care in terminal cancer patients in Taiwan.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: As the number of terminal cancer patients increases, several care models have been adopted to provide better care quality and reduce medical expenditure. This study compared inpatient medical expenditure and family satisfaction in a hospice ward (HW) and general ward (GW) for terminal cancer patients in Taiwan. METHODS: We enrolled terminal cancer patients who were admitted and died during the same admission period in a tertiary care hospital in Taiwan from January 2003 to December 2005. These patients were allocated into three groups: inpatient care in HW alone; inpatient care in GW alone; and inpatient care in mixed group (initially in GW, then transferred to HW). Inpatient medical expenditure and family satisfaction were compared between the three groups. RESULTS: A total of 1942 patients were recruited and allocated into HW (n = 292), GW (n = 1511) and mixed (n = 139) groups. The average medical expenditure per person or per inpatient day was lower in the HW than the GW or mixed group. Subjects who had ever been admitted to the intensive care unit or received cardiopulmonary resuscitation in the GW or mixed groups required more expenditure on medical care than that in the HW group. Daily medical expenditure in the HW group also was much lower than that in the GW and mixed groups, based on length of stay and cancer type. The family satisfaction score was significantly higher in the mixed and/or HW group than the GW group. CONCLUSION: For terminal cancer patients, hospice care can improve family satisfaction while reducing medical expenditure in Taiwan.