University Student Health Services, Local Experience, and Emerging Needs: Bridging the Past With the Future.

University students' health and well-being is critical, especially in the aftermath of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic; however, a comprehensive and integrated approach in academic institutions remains neglected. In this context, the local experience from a pilot university-based Student Health Center at an urban campus in Greece is presented. Select health promotion and disease prevention screening and monitoring initiatives are summarized from the viewpoint of a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats analysis, with emerging health needs and policy implications. Long-term sustainability is feasible, only if synergies and close collaboration with other university units and local health authorities are developed. A post-pandemic call to action for intervention programs that integrate physical and mental health care, as well as raise awareness among university stakeholders and health policy makers, is issued. [Journal of Psychosocial Nursing and Mental Health Services, 61(3), 27-31.].

Reengineering NHS Hospitals in Greece: Redistribution Leads to Rational Mergers.

The purpose of this study was to record and evaluate existing public hospital infrastructure of the National Health System (NHS), in terms of clinics and laboratories, as well as the healthcare workforce in each of these units and in every health region in Greece, in an attempt to optimize the allocation of these resources. An extensive analysis of raw data according to supply and performance indicators was performed to serve as a solid and objective scientific baseline for the proposed reengineering of the Greek public hospitals. Suggestions for "reshuffling" clinics and diagnostic laboratories, and their personnel, were made by using a best versus worst outcome indicator approach at a regional and national level. This study is expected to contribute to the academic debate about the gap between theory and evidence based decision-making in health policy.

Going up in ashes? Smoking-attributable morbidity, hospital admissions and expenditure in Greece.

Our aim was to calculate the morbidity, hospitalizations and subsequent hospital costs for the treatment of the smoking-attributable fraction of diseases in Greece using a prevalence-based annual cost approach. In 2011, smoking accounted for 199,028 hospital admissions (8.9% of the national total), with attributable hospital treatment costs calculated at more than €554 million, which represents 10.7% of the national hospital budget. These results pose a compelling reason for the European Union to champion tobacco control as a means of reducing the financial and social burden of disease in Greece and other countries currently facing a financial maelstrom.

Reforming reimbursement of public hospitals in Greece during the economic crisis: Implementation of a DRG system.

OBJECTIVES: Until recently, in-patient NHS hospital care in Greece was reimbursed via an anachronistic and under-priced retrospective per diem system, which has been held primarily responsible for continuous budget deficits. The purpose of this paper is to present the efforts of the Ministry of Health (MoH) to implement a new DRG-based payment system. METHODS: As in many countries, the decision was to adopt a patient classification from abroad and to refine it for use in Greece with national data. Pricing was achieved with a combination of activity-based costing with data from selected Greek hospitals, and "imported" cost weights. Data collection, IT support and monitoring are provided via ESY.net, a web-based facility developed and implemented by the MoH. RESULTS: After an initial pilot testing of the classification in 20 hospitals, complete DRG reimbursement data was reported by 113 hospitals (85% of total) for the fourth quarter of 2011. The recorded monthly increase in patient discharges billed with the new system and in revenue implies increasing adaptability by the hospitals. However, the unfavorable inlier vs. outlier distribution of discharges and revenue observed in some health regions signifies the need for corrective actions. CONCLUSIONS: The importance of this reimbursement reform is discussed in light of the current crisis faced by the Greek economy. There is yet much to be done and many projects are currently in progress to support this effort; however the first cost containment results are encouraging.

Prevention and health promotion in clinical practice: the views of general practitioners in Europe.

BACKGROUND: Disease prevention and health promotion are important tasks in the daily practice of all general practitioners (GPs). The objective of this study was to explore the knowledge and attitudes of European GPs in implementing evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention recommendations in primary care, to describe GPs' perceived barriers to implementing these recommendations and to assess how GPs' own health behaviors affect their work with their patients. METHODS: A postal multinational survey was carried out from June to December 2000 in a random sample of GPs listed from national colleges of each country. RESULTS: Eleven European countries participated in the study, giving a total of 2082 GPs. Although GPs believe they should advise preventive and health promotion activities, in practice, they are less likely to do so. About 56.02% of the GPs answered that carrying-out prevention and health promotion activities are difficult. The two most important barriers reported were heavy workload/lack of time and no reimbursement. Associations between personal health behaviour and attitudes to health promotion or activities in prevention were found. GPs who smoked felt less effective in helping patients to reduce tobacco consumption than non-smoking GPs (39.34% versus 48.18%, P < 0.01). GPs who exercised felt that they were more effective in helping patients to practice regular physical exercise than sedentary GPs (59.14% versus 49.70%, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Significant gaps between GP's knowledge and practices persist in the use of evidence-based recommendations for health promotion and disease prevention in primary care.