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Although the authority for hiring a community college president resides with the board of trustees, few studies have directly explored trustees' perceptions of the desired qualifications for presidents. Using a Delphi process, this study identified the characteristics, competencies, and professional experiences that Illinois community college trustees value in presidential candidates. (Contains 1 table, 1 figure, and 1 note.)

The article presents a study on the effect of fasciotomy length on intracompartmental pressures to explain the high failure rate in fascial release for chronic exertional compartment syndrome (CECS). Topics covered include the strong correlation between fasciotomy length and a reduced intracompartmental pressures in a swine model. Also mentioned are the possible iatrogenic injuries tied to percutaneous release.

The article assesses the health services rendered by school physicians at the Laboratory Schools of the University of Chicago in Illinois in 1935. There were two full-time physicians employed at the university to secure health services for the pupils. During physical examinations, the physicians strictly administered sex division. Aside from physical examinations, the physicians also performed various services including, such as medical history taking and first aid services.

Focuses on the curriculum in agricultural economics at the Southern Illinois Unversity in Carbondale, Illinois. Goals of teaching; Considerations for the development of the curriculum; Example of an undergraduate curriculum in agricultural economics.

A list of the United States' states ranked on the basis of their wealth and yearly public school expenditure is presented. The first in the list is New York. The state is followed by Pennsylvania and Illinois.

The article discusses the sanitary precautions needed to be implemented in schools in Chicago, Illinois. It tackles the need to quarantine the drinking cups, door-knobs and several objects within the school premises. It also described the playgrounds in Chicago and how these could be insanitary areas for children.

Frequent visitors account for a high proportion of Emergency Department (ED) visits and costs. Some of these visits could be handled effectively in less expensive primary care settings. Effective interventions to redirect these patients to primary care depend on an in-depth understanding of frequent visitors and the reasons they seek care in the ED. The objective of this study was to explore the differences between frequent visitors and infrequent visitors who seek medical care in one urban ED, as a first step toward developing effective interventions to direct patients to effective sources of care. In structured interviews, we asked 69 frequent visitors and 99 infrequent visitors to an inner-city, adult ED about medical diagnoses, general health, depression, alcohol abuse, physical functioning, self-perceived social support, primary care and ED service use, payment method, satisfaction with their primary care physician, and demographic characteristics. Differences in responses between groups were compared using t-tests for continuous variables and chi-square for categorical variables. Frequent visitors were more likely than infrequent visitors to be insured by Medicaid (53% vs. 39%, respectively) and less likely to be uninsured (13% vs. 24%, respectively) or have private insurance (6% vs. 15%, respectively). They reported higher levels of stress, lower levels of social support, and worse general health status. They were much more likely to screen positive for depression (47% vs. 27%, respectively, p = 0.017). Frequent visitors were more likely to have a primary care physician (75% vs. 66%, respectively), and 45% of the frequent visitors had a primary care physician at the ED hospital compared to 23% of the infrequent visitors. These findings suggest the need to improve access to frequent visitors' primary care physicians, screen them for depression, and offer psychological and social services more aggressively. These findings may apply to other inner city EDs., (Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Patients with asthma who require emergency department (ED) care are burdened with asthma symptoms, are at risk for hospitalization, and use expensive resources., Objective: To examine whether an ED-based surveillance system that characterized asthma symptoms and care before, during, and after an ED visit enhances our understanding of the natural history of asthma exacerbations., Methods: This cross-sectional follow-up enrolled 225 adult patients who presented to 1 of 6 Illinois EDs for asthma care. Clinical characteristics before ED presentation, care provided in the EDs, and 1-month follow-up status were assessed by self-administered questionnaire, medical record review, and telephone interview, respectively., Results: Persistent asthma symptoms were reported by 85.8% and 84.9% (P = .37) of patients before their ED visit and follow-up call, respectively. For patients with persistent symptoms before the ED visit and follow-up call, 54.4% and 73.8% (P = .02) reported using an inhaled corticosteroid, respectively. Inhaled corticosteroids were recommended for 49.4% of discharged patients with persistent symptoms. Relapse rates for return ED visits and return hospitalizations were 26.4% and 9.6%, respectively. Patients had low asthma-specific and general quality-of-life scores at follow-up., Conclusions: Patients with asthma exacerbations most often had uncontrolled asthma before the ED visit that subsequently deteriorated, temporarily improved with ED treatment, and continued as uncontrolled asthma after the ED visit. Although improvements in care were reported 1 month after the ED visit, opportunities for additional improvement were observed.

Objectives: To assess the intermethod reliability of medical chart review compared with directly observed care in patients presenting to emergency departments (EDs) for asthma care., Methods: ED care practices for persons with asthma were evaluated by comparing chart review with trained observers. Fifty-one patients from five EDs participating in the Illinois Emergency Department Asthma Collaborative were studied. Practices in assessment, treatment, education, and referral were measured. Eighteen elements of care were assessed. Concordance between chart and observation was measured by using the kappa statistic., Results: Of 51 subjects studied, nine were children. Kappa values varied depending on content. Kappa values ranged from 0.22 to 0.91 for items reflecting asthma assessment. Good concordances (kappa = 0.50 to 0.82) were found for items reflecting treatment practices. The lowest concordances were for items assessing educational activities (kappa = 0.04 to 0.34). Referral practices had fair to moderate concordances (kappa = 0.21 to 0.45)., Conclusions: Intermethod reliability of medical chart review and directly observed care varied depending on the element of care being measured. The use of chart review to measure quality of ED-based asthma care may only be appropriate for a limited number of care processes that are reliably and validly captured from chart review.