Implementation of Clean Indoor Air Laws: Complaints, Citations, and Fines or Sanctions Related to Possible Violations of the Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act.

OBJECTIVE: To determine how well the Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act was being observed and enforced. DESIGN: A survey inquired about complaints, citations, and fines or sanctions after the implementation of the Kansas Clean Indoor Air Act; inquiry was also made about the law's effectiveness. Descriptive statistics and Poisson tests of statistical significance were used. SETTING: Each of the 55 Kansas cities with more than 5000 in population. PARTICIPANTS: Law enforcement personnel. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Monthly rates of complaints, citations, fines or sanctions, and reports of the law's effectiveness during the 30-month period after implementation of the act. RESULTS: Responses were received from 100% of the sampled cities. The number of citizen complaints and citations decreased over time from 4.33 to 2.42 per month and from 3.17 to 0.92 per month, respectively. The number of fines or sanctions decreased from 1.67 per month to 0.50 per month. In 51 of 55 cities (92.7%), respondents reported that the Kansas Clean Indoor Act appeared to be working effectively. There was a statistically significant difference between the first and second and first and third time periods for citations and fines or sanctions. However, there was only a statistically significant difference between the first and third time periods for citizen complaints. CONCLUSIONS: The law appears to be functioning effectively. This approach could be used to supplement measured or self-reported exposures to secondhand smoke in future studies in other jurisdictions, particularly in identifying areas with potential problems. Given the conservative nature of Kansas, adoption of such a law in the remaining states seems realistic.

Factors affecting the progress of community health assessment and improvement activities in kansas.

CONTEXT: Community health assessment (CHA) and community health improvement planning (CHIP) are important functions for local health departments (LHDs) but may present challenges, particularly in rural settings. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this 2-year, mixed-methods study was to identify factors that impede or promote the timeliness and quality of CHA-CHIP completion in Kansas. DESIGN: Focus group interviews, conducted at baseline (2012) and at 1 year (2013), included 15 and 21 groups, respectively. Scores from a 12-item attitudinal survey that explored participants' confidence to perform CHA-CHIP activities were collected in tandem with focus groups. SETTING: Kansas counties that planned to conduct a CHA-CHIP process during 2012 and/or 2013 were eligible to participate. PARTICIPANTS: There were 128 study participants (57 in 2012, 71 in 2013), who were predominantly female (83%), aged 51 years or older (61.4%), and lived in rural areas (84.6%). Public health region representation in 2012 and 2013 was 73% and 93%, respectively. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Changes in perceptions about CHA-CHIP inputs, process, outputs, outcomes, and self-efficacy to perform CHA-CHIP activities were explored. RESULTS: Progress in CHA-CHIP implementation was reported in 2013. Most participants perceived the CHA-CHIP process as valuable and enhanced the LHD's visibility. Rural participants reported having completed the CHA phase, whereas urban LHDs had progressed into the planning and implementation stage. Potentiators of the CHA-CHIP process included (1) parallel assessment activities conducted by other community organizations, and (2) for rural counties, a functioning 501(c)3 community health coalition. Perceptions about the importance of partnership and leadership were unchanged. A multivariate regression analysis revealed a significant time effect and rural-urban difference in perceived self-efficacy. CONCLUSIONS: Workforce development and public health system development issues are central concerns identified by this study. Local health departments with constrained resources and limited staff, despite additional training, are unlikely to develop the capacity needed to effectively support CHA-CHIP, making long-term sustainability uncertain.

Voices across Kansas: community health assessment and improvement efforts among local health departments.

CONTEXT: Community health assessment (CHA) and community health improvement planning (CHIP) is central to public health accreditation and essential functions and therefore important to local health departments (LHDs). However, rural states face significant challenges to pursue public health accreditation. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this statewide study was to identify factors that impede or promote the timeliness of CHA and CHIP completion. DESIGN: Fifteen focus groups, representing 11 of 15 public health regions, were conducted via telephone, using a structured interview script between April and September 2012. SETTING: The sampling frame for the project was represented by counties in Kansas that planned to conduct a CHA-CHIP activity during 2012. PARTICIPANTS: Participants (N = 76) were LHD administrators, hospital representatives, and key community stakeholders from frontier, rural, and urban settings who were involved in CHA-CHIP activities. They were predominantly female (86.0%) and 51 years or older (66.7%). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The study assessed perceptions and opinions about the inputs, process, outputs, and outcomes of CHA-CHIP activities within the community. RESULTS: Overall, CHA-CHIP implementation in Kansas was in its early stages. Rural counties reported a lack of capacity and confidence to perform many CHA-CHIP activities. Early CHA-CHIP adopters were located in more populous, metropolitan areas and had progressed further into the CHA-CHIP process. Regardless of rural/urban status, a history of collaborative activity among community stakeholder groups appeared to promote progress in CHA-CHIP completion. Participants reported that additional funding, time, trained staff, technical assistance, and community leadership were needed to conduct CHA-CHIP activities. Barriers included maintaining required LHD services while conducting assessment and planning activities and differences in public health and federal cycles for performing CHA. CONCLUSIONS: Study findings have implications for strengthening rural workforce development and technical assistance for CHA-CHIP activities.

Who's enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP)? An overview of findings from the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative (CHIRI).

BACKGROUND: The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was enacted in 1997 to provide health insurance coverage to uninsured low-income children from families who earned too much to be eligible for Medicaid. OBJECTIVES: To develop a "baseline" portrait of SCHIP enrollees in 5 states (Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Indiana, and New York) by examining: 1) SCHIP enrollees' demographic characteristics and health care experiences before enrolling in SCHIP, particularly children with special health care needs (CSHCN), racial and ethnic minority children, and adolescents; 2) the quality of the care adolescents received before enrollment; and 3) the changes in enrollee characteristics as programs evolve and mature. METHODS: Each of 5 projects from the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative (CHIRI) surveyed new SCHIP enrollees as identified by state enrollment data. CHIRI investigators developed the CHIRI common core (a set of survey items from validated instruments), which were largely incorporated into each survey. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to ascertain whether there were racial and ethnic disparities in access to health care and differences between CSHCN and those without. Current Population Survey data for New York State were used to identify secular trends in enrollee characteristics. RESULTS: Most SCHIP enrollees (65% in Florida to 79% in New York) resided in families with incomes < or =150% of the federal poverty level. Almost half of SCHIP enrollees lived in single-parent households. A majority of SCHIP parents had not had education beyond high school, and in 2 states (Alabama and New York) approximately 25% had not completed high school. The vast majority of children lived in households with a working adult, and in a substantial proportion of households both parents worked. Children tended to be either insured for the entire 12 months or uninsured the entire 12 months before enrolling in SCHIP. Private insurance was the predominant form of insurance before enrollment in SCHIP in most states, but 23.3% to 51.2% of insured children had Medicaid as their most recent insurance. HEALTH CARE USE AND UNMET NEEDS BEFORE SCHIP: The vast majority of all SCHIP enrollees had a usual source of care (USC) during the year before SCHIP. The proportion of children who changed their USC after enrolling in SCHIP ranged from 29% to 41.3%. A large proportion of SCHIP enrollees used health services during the year before SCHIP, with some variability across states in the use of health care. Nevertheless, 32% to almost 50% of children reported unmet needs. CSHCN: The prevalence of CSHCN in SCHIP (between 17% and 25%) in the study states was higher than the prevalence of CSHCN reported in the general population in those states. In many respects, CSHCN were similar to children without special health care needs, but CSHCN had poorer health status, were more likely to have had unmet needs, and were more likely to use the emergency department, mental health care, specialty care, and acute care in the year before enrolling in SCHIP than children without special health care needs. RACE AND ETHNICITY: A substantial proportion of SCHIP enrollees were black non-Hispanic or Hispanic children (Alabama: 34% and <1%; Florida: 6% and 26%; Kansas: 12% and 15%; and New York: 31% and 45%, respectively). Minority children were poorer, in poorer health, and less likely to have had a USC or private insurance before enrolling in SCHIP. The prevalence and magnitude of the disparities varied among the states. QUALITY OF CARE FOR ADOLESCENTS: Seventy-three percent of adolescent SCHIP enrollees engaged in one or more risk behaviors (ie, feeling sad or blue; alcohol, tobacco, and drug use; having sexual intercourse; and not wearing seat belts). Although almost 70% of adolescents reported having had a preventive care visit the previous year, a majority of them did not receive counseling in each of 4 counseling areas. Controlling for other factors, having a private, confidential visit with the physician was associated with an increased liked likelihood (2-3 times more likely) that the adolescent received counseling for 3 of 4 counseling areas. TRENDS OVER TIME: New York SCHIP enrollees in 2001, compared with 1994 enrollees in New York's SCHIP-precursor child health insurance program, were more likely to be black or Hispanic, older, from New York City, and from families with lower education, income, and employment levels. A greater proportion of 2001 enrollees was uninsured for some time in the year before enrollment, was insured by Medicaid, and lacked a USC. Secular trends in the low-income population in the state did not seem to be responsible for these differences. Program modifications during this time period that may be related to the shift in enrollee characteristics include changes to benefits, outreach and marketing efforts, changes in the premium structure, and the advent of a single application form for multiple public programs. CONCLUSIONS: SCHIP enrollees are a diverse group, and there was considerable variation among the 5 study states. Overall, SCHIP enrollees had substantial and wide-ranging health care needs despite high levels of prior contact with the health care system. A sizable minority of SCHIP enrollees has special health care needs. There is racial and ethnic diversity in the composition of enrollees as well, with racial and ethnic disparities present. The quality of care adolescents received before enrollment in SCHIP was suboptimal, with many reporting unmet health care needs and not receiving recommended counseling. The characteristics of SCHIP enrollees can be expected to change as SCHIP programs evolve and mature. POLICY IMPLICATIONS: 1) Benefits should be structured to meet the needs of SCHIP enrollees, which are comparable to Medicaid enrollees' needs in many respects. 2) Provider networks will have to be broad if continuity of care is to be achieved. 3) Multiple outreach strategies should be used, including using providers to distribute information about SCHIP. 4) The quality of care delivered to vulnerable populations (eg, minority children, CSHCN, and adolescents) should be monitored. 5) States and health plans should actively promote quality health care with the goal of improving the care received by SCHIP enrollees before enrollment. 6) States will have to craft policies that fit their local context. 7) Collecting baseline information on SCHIP enrollees on a continuous basis is important, because enrollee characteristics and needs can change, and many vulnerable children are enrolling in SCHIP.

Children with special health care needs enrolled in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP): patient characteristics and health care needs.

BACKGROUND: Children with special health care needs (CSHCN) often require more extensive services than children without special needs. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in many states typically provides less extensive benefits and services than do state Medicaid programs. To design SCHIP to address the needs of CSHCN adequately, it is important to measure the degree to which children who enroll in SCHIP have special health care needs and to assess their health status and unmet health care needs. Little is known about the characteristics or preenrollment experience of CSHCN who enroll in SCHIP. OBJECTIVES: To use data from the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative to measure the prevalence of CSHCN in SCHIP in 4 states, describe their demographic and health care features at enrollment, and compare their sociodemographic characteristics, health status, prior health care experiences, and unmet needs versus children without special health care needs. METHODS: Children (0-18 years old) newly enrolled in SCHIP in 4 states were eligible for the study: New York, Florida (adolescents only), Kansas, and Indiana (CSHCN only). Telephone interviews were conducted shortly after enrollment and identified CSHCN by using the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative CSHCN screener. A common set of core questions assessed demographic characteristics, health status, special health care need status, insurance experience, access, use, quality of health care, and unmet needs during the year before enrollment. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare characteristics of CSHCN with characteristics of children without special needs. RESULTS: Interviews were completed for parents of 5296 children enrolled in SCHIP in the 4 states. By using the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative CSHCN screener, the prevalence of CSHCN among SCHIP enrollees was 17% (New York), 18% (Florida), and 25% (Kansas), higher than the prevalence of CSHCN reported in the general population in those states. More than half of CSHCN reported the use of a chronic medication. Demographic characteristics of CSHCN were similar to those of children without special needs, although CSHCN were more likely to reside in single-parent households. Although CSHCN had poorer health status than children without special needs, many CSHCN were reported to be in good health, suggesting a wide spectrum of severity of illnesses within the CSHCN group. Although CSHCN were more likely than children without special needs to have been insured before SCHIP, a large proportion of CSHCN were nevertheless uninsured for at least 12 months before SCHIP (New York, 56%; Florida, 68%; Kansas, 24%; Indiana, 25%). Although most SCHIP enrollees had a usual source of care (USC) before SCHIP and there was some variation across states, between 4% and 13% of CSHCN lacked a USC on enrollment, and 23% to 38% of CSHCN changed their USC after enrollment in SCHIP. The majority of all SCHIP enrollees (including CSHCN) had used some health care during the year before SCHIP including preventive, acute, or specialty care. A high proportion of all SCHIP enrollees, including >30% to 40% of CSHCN, were reported to have unmet health care needs at enrollment in SCHIP. A variety of unmet needs were reported by CSHCN including specialty care, mental health care, dental care, and prescription medications. Nevertheless, the vast majority of CSHCN as well as children without special needs rated the quality of their medical care before SCHIP highly on several specific quality measures. Findings from multivariate analyses were similar to bivariate results with CSHCN in several states having higher use of care and more unmet health care needs before enrollment. CONCLUSIONS: SCHIP is enrolling many CSHCN, with the prevalence of these children occurring at least as high as the prevalence of CSHCN in the general population. CSHCN enrolled in SCHIP represent a heterogeneous population with a wide range of health status and health care needs. Although most CSHCN were already already connected to the health care system with a USC and prior health care visits, many had unmet health care needs before enrolling in SCHIP. IMPLICATIONS FOR MONITORING AND IMPROVING SCHIP FOR CSHCN ENROLLEES: 1) SCHIP benefit packages need to adequately cover services required by CSHCN such as prescription medications and specialty, mental health, developmental, and home services; 2) because utilization of care will be high among this large group of children, alternative methods of financing and managing care should be considered such as risk adjustment and special programs that involve case management and care coordination; 3) coordination of care across programs (such as between SCHIP and the state Title V Maternal and Child Health Services program, a component of which serves CSHCN) and ensuring adequate access to primary care and specialty providers might improve access to services for CSHCN; and 4) it is critical to monitor the quality of care for CSHCN enrolled in SCHIP, because these children are among the most vulnerable children covered by public health insurance programs and many of them are enrolling in SCHIP.

The role of race and ethnicity in the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in four states: are there baseline disparities, and what do they mean for SCHIP?

BACKGROUND: Elimination of racial and ethnic disparities in health has become a major national goal. The State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) has the potential to reduce disparities among the children who enroll if they exhibit the same disparities that have been documented in previous studies of low-income children. To determine the potential impact of SCHIP on racial and ethnic disparities, it is critical to assess baseline levels of health disparities among children enrolling in SCHIP. OBJECTIVE: To use data from the Child Health Insurance Research Initiative (CHIRI) to 1) describe the sociodemographic profile of new enrollees in SCHIP in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, and New York; 2) determine if there were differences in health insurance and health care experiences among white, black, and Hispanic SCHIP enrollees before enrollment in SCHIP; and 3) explore whether race or ethnicity, controlled for other factors, affected pre-SCHIP access to health coverage and health care. SETTING: SCHIP programs in Alabama, Florida, Kansas, and New York, which together include 26% of SCHIP enrollees nationwide. DESIGN: Telephone interview (mailed survey in Alabama) about the child's health, health insurance, and health care experiences conducted shortly after SCHIP enrollment to assess experience during the time period before SCHIP. SAMPLE: New SCHIP enrollees (0-17.9 years old in Alabama, Kansas, and New York and 11.5-17.9 years old in Florida). Stratified sampling was performed in Kansas and New York, with results weighted to reflect statewide populations of new SCHIP enrollees. MEASURES: Sociodemographic characteristics including income, education, employment, and other characteristics of the child and the family, race and ethnicity (white non-Hispanic, black non-Hispanic, and Hispanic [any race]), prior health insurance, health care access and utilization, and health status. ANALYSES: Bivariate analyses were used to compare baseline measures upon enrollment for white, black, and Hispanic SCHIP enrollees. Multivariate analyses were performed to assess health status and health care access measures (prior insurance, presence of a usual source of care (USC), and use of preventive care), controlling for demographic factors described above. Weighted analyses (where appropriate) were performed by using SPSS, STATA, or SUDAAN. RESULTS: Racial and ethnic composition varied across the SCHIP cohorts studied, with black and Hispanic children comprising the following proportion of enrollees, respectively: Alabama, 33% and <1%; Florida, 16% and 26%; Kansas, 12% and 15%; and New York, 24% and 36%. Black and Hispanic children were more likely to reside in single-parent and lower-income families. With some variation by state, children from minority groups were more likely to report poorer health status than were white children. Relative to white children, children from minority groups in Florida and New York were more likely to have been uninsured for the entire year before SCHIP enrollment. In all states, children from minority groups who had prior coverage were more likely to have previously been enrolled in Medicaid than in private health insurance and were less likely to have had employer-sponsored coverage compared with white children. Except in Alabama, there was a difference in having a USC, with children from minority groups less likely to have had a USC before SCHIP enrollment compared with white children. No consistent pattern of health care utilization before SCHIP was noted across states with respect to race or ethnicity. Findings from multivariate analyses, controlling for sociodemographic factors, generally confirmed that black and Hispanic children were more likely to have lacked insurance or a USC before enrollment in SCHIP and to have poorer health status compared with white children. CONCLUSIONS: SCHIP is enrolling substantial numbers of racial and ethnic minority children. There are baseline racial and ethnic disparities among new enrollees in SCHIP, with black and Hispanic children faring worse than white children on many sociodemographic and health system measures, and there are differences among states in the prevalence and magnitude of these disparities. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, these disparities persisted. IMPLICATIONS FOR MONITORING AND IMPROVING SCHIP: SCHIP has the potential to play a critical role in efforts to eliminate racial and ethnic disparities in health among the children it serves. However, study findings indicate that programmatic efforts are necessary to ensure that disparities are not perpetuated. Program effectiveness and outcomes should be monitored by race and ethnicity to ensure equity in access, use, and outcomes across all racial and ethnic groups. Assessing the health characteristics and needs of new SCHIP enrollees can provide a benchmark for evaluating the program's impact on eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in health and inform service delivery enhancements.

Performance of a mail-administered version of a stroke-specific outcome measure, the Stroke Impact Scale.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the feasibility and concurrent validity of a new, mail-administered, stroke-specific outcome measure, the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS). DESIGN: Observational cohort study. SETTING AND PATIENTS: Stroke patients who had lived independently in the community prior to their stroke and who were candidates for post-stroke rehabilitation were recruited from nine, high-volume, Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Centers. METHODS: Two hundred and six patients were mailed the SIS after a six-month post-stroke telephone interview. Telephone assessments included the Functional Independence Measure, the Lawton IADL and the SF-36. RESULTS: The response rate for the mailed SIS was 63%, with 45% of the responses from proxies. The average rate of missing item level scores per patient was 1.3 (range 0-20) resulting in an average rate of 0.13 missing domain scores per patient (range 0-3). Nonresponders to the mailed SIS had more severe strokes with lower functional status at the time of the survey than responders. Proxies were more likely to complete the survey if the subjects were older, married, cognitively impaired and more functionally limited. The SIS did not exhibit a high rate of floor and ceiling effects, particularly in physical function domains, as did the FIM and the SF-36. CONCLUSIONS: The mailed SIS is a feasible means of assessing post-stroke function. Missing items and missing domain scores were extremely low, however, there is a trade-off between the low-cost mail SIS survey on the one hand and the resulting nonresponse bias on the other.

Adherence to postacute rehabilitation guidelines is associated with functional recovery in stroke.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if compliance with poststroke rehabilitation guidelines was associated with better functional outcomes. METHODS: An inception cohort of 288 stroke patients in 11 Department of Veteran Affairs Medical Centers hospitalized between January 1998 and March 1999 were followed prospectively for 6 months. Data were abstracted from medical records and telephone interviews. The primary study outcome was the Functional Independence Motor Score (FIM). Secondary outcomes included Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL), SF-36 physical functioning, and the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS). Acute and postacute rehabilitation guideline compliance scores (range 0 to 100) were derived from an algorithm. All outcomes were adjusted for case-mix. RESULTS: Average compliance scores in acute and postacute care settings were 68.2% (SD 14) and 69.5% (SD 14.4), respectively. After case-mix adjustment, level of compliance with postacute rehabilitation guidelines was significantly associated with FIM motor, IADL, and the SIS physical domain scores. SF-36 physical function was not associated with guideline compliance. Level of compliance with rehabilitation guidelines in acute settings was unrelated to any of the outcome measures. CONCLUSION: Greater levels of adherence to postacute stroke rehabilitation guidelines were associated with improved patient outcomes. Compliance with guidelines may be viewed as a quality-of-care indicator with which to evaluate new organizational and funding changes involving postacute stroke rehabilitation.