Minor surgery in primary care was favourably received by users. Activity at our centre had good anatomical-pathological concordance.

Purpose -The paper aims to evaluate a primary care obesity prevention intervention, targeting low-income minority parents in the USA. The first objective is to describe the barriers to behavior change experienced by families. The second objective is to understand the types of strategies that were used by the health educator to empower families to engage in healthy behavior changes. Design/methodology/approach -Qualitative methods were used to conduct a content analysis of the intervention's instruments and health educator's notes on counseling sessions. Demographic data were collected from the patient information system. Findings -Households were 80 percent Hispanic and 17 percent African American. A total of 26 percent of the children were overweight or obese. Themes identified were poor parenting skills, which included sub themes of picky eating, food-related tantrums, bottle feeding, and submitting to unhealthy food requests; poor knowledge and skills regarding healthy eating; and psycho/social issues acting as barriers to healthy eating, including sub themes of housing issues, parental unemployment and intergenerational conflict regarding food choices. Originality/value -There are few family-based obesity prevention interventions, especially in low-income minority communities. This study found that parents are interested in improving the intake of healthy foods for their families; however, they face substantial barriers. This study supports enhanced health assessment as part of the preschool preventive visit. The authors also found that a skilled, culturally competent, health educator is essential to extend counseling beyond the brief encounter with physicians, as well as advocacy for systematic and policy level changes, to address the complex context in which behavior change can occur.

The purpose of this article was to present Nebraska's model of collaboration between public health, public health nursing, medicine, and community partners. Another purpose was to provide exemplars of data trends and outcomes of the multiyear experience with the model. The goal of the collaborative model was to promote the concept of a medical home, improve access to care, and better manage population health for the diverse and vulnerable Medicaid population by implementing a change from fee-for-service to managed care. The vision was to better match population health needs to health services used and to reduce disparities. A unique feature of the model is the use of public health professionals and strategies.

Participant satisfaction is an important outcome in evaluating the effectiveness of healthcare programs and benefits. With vulnerable populations, such as Medicaid beneficiaries, determining participant satisfaction poses unique challenges. The purpose of this article is to discuss participant satisfaction methods and outcomes from a multi-year experience of surveying Medicaid Managed Care (MMC) participants in Nebraska (2000-2005). Using a variety of survey methods, the foci were to measure satisfaction with MMC enrollment, understanding of MMC guidelines, and satisfaction with education services provided. Results illustrate response rate patterns and outcome trends that contribute to quality improvement knowledge useful for others surveying Medicaid populations.