D M Reker

..This integrated database structure will provide valuable support to enhance the VHA capacity to perform stroke rehabilitation research...

..Patients with stroke are often selected for epidemiological reporting and research using ICD-9-CM (ICD-9) diagnostic codes. This study addresses the accuracy of these codes in identifying patients with stroke...

..Administrative data and ICD-9-CM diagnostic codes are frequently used in research efforts to evaluate risk adjusted patient outcomes, particularly mortality. Varying ICD-9-CM sampling algorithms have been used to identify stroke patients...

..The purpose of this study was to determine if compliance with poststroke rehabilitation guidelines was associated with better functional outcomes...

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..To examine variation in provision of assistive technology (AT) devices and the extent to which such variation may be explained by patient characteristics or Veterans Health Administration (VHA) administrative region...

..These findings provide broad support for the use of DSS cost data in studies of VA stroke care...

..This study assessed the likelihood of 12-month poststroke rehospitalization and mortality of veterans who used VHA only versus those who used multiple sources of care...

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..To determine if the structure of care or the process of stroke care, as measured by compliance with stroke guidelines published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is associated with patient satisfaction...

..We discuss our results with reference to the literature on ethnic classification and underline the importance of initiatives for improved data collection on ethnicity in VA data sources and in rehabilitation research...

..Bates BE, Kwong PL, Kurichi JE, Bidelspach DE, Reker DM, Maislin G, Xie D, Stineman M. Factors influencing decisions to admit patients to Veterans Affairs specialized rehabilitation units after lower-extremity amputation...

..In contrast, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) policy does not limit provision of AT to "in home" use only but rather, states "all enrolled and some non-enrolled veterans are eligible for all needed prosthetics."..

..Metastatic cancer was associated only at 3 months and 1 year. We concluded that high medical complexity and mortality rates attest to the need for careful medical oversight during the postacute rehabilitation period...

..To evaluate the feasibility and concurrent validity of a new, mail-administered, stroke-specific outcome measure, the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS)...

..Black men had 25% lower use of colonoscopy and 50% decreased use of flexible sigmoidoscopy. Blacks receive less colonoscopy and flexible sigmoidoscopy than whites. Black men are particularly vulnerable to the under-use of these tests...

..To compare outcomes between lower-extremity amputees who receive and do not receive acute postoperative inpatient rehabilitation within a large integrated health care delivery system...

..To determine how advanced age influences prosthetic prescription...

..585) were more likely than Caucasians to receive standard wheelchairs. Hispanics (OR = 0.4), African Americans (OR = 0.7), and American Indians/Asians (OR = 0.4) were less likely than Caucasians to receive scooters...

..Understanding comorbidity prevalence and the effects of comorbidities in older veterans with lower extremity amputations may aid in assessing patient outcomes, resource use, and facility-level quality of care...

..However, little empirical work has been done to test this hypothesis, particularly for medical rehabilitation...

..The purposes of this study were to compare proxy-patient responses on each domain of the Stroke Impact Scale (SIS) and the SIS-16, estimate the bias, and evaluate the validity of proxy scores...