OBJECTIVES The world literature is reporting economic destabilisation of psychiatric wards in general hospitals related to the new rules of financing (managed care). The aim of this paper is to analyse the literature on psychiatric wards in general hospitals, and to know the opinions of psychiatrists employed in these wards in Poland regarding organisational model and the stability of these war...

children's beds is 1 to 3 4, but this figure hides great extremes. For instance, 303 wards say that they have a parent's bed for every child's bed or that they would never turn a parent away, whereas 97 wards, including 27 paediatric general or children's surgical wards, can offer no accommodation whatsoever, on or off the ward, except in a case of emergency. Hospitals were flexible about the l...

requisite to prevent continually recurring outbreaks of diphtheria and septic throat amongst the patients and hospital staff. For many years past there had been trouble with diphtheria in this hospital, but during the years 1897, 1898, and 1899, there had been so many outbreaks, involving such comparatively large numbers of the inmates, and the wards had been so frequently closed for disinfecti...

OBJECTIVES To compare discrepancies in drug histories among patients acutely admitted to different hospital wards, classify the discrepancies according to their potential clinical impact and identify appropriate selection criteria for patients that should be subject to a detailed drug history at admission. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Two gastrointestinal surgery wards and one geri...

OBJECTIVE To determine the incidence of central venous catheter (CVC)-associated bloodstream infection (CA-BSI) among patients admitted to general medical wards outside the intensive care unit (ICU). DESIGN Prospective cohort study performed over a 13-month period, from April 1, 2002, through April 30, 2003. SETTING Four selected general medical wards at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, a 1,250-bed ...

OBJECTIVE To study the effectiveness of safety devices intended to prevent percutaneous injuries.Design. Quasi-experimental trial with before-and-after intervention evaluation. SETTING A 350-bed general hospital that has had an ongoing educational program for the prevention of percutaneous injuries since January 2002. METHODS In October 2005, we implemented a program for the use of engineer...

A study was undertaken to determine typical concentrations of airborne bacteria and fungi (microflora) in Teaching Hospital environment in Benin City in the tropical rainforest environment of Nigeria. Aerial sampling was conducted at various hospital wards each day. The air samples were collected thrice daily. Concentrations of airborne microflora exceeded available local guidelines for indoor ...

Dear and McLain have shown clearly how the establishment of an intermediate care ward reduced the admission rate to their neonatal unit.' Although such a ward may be useful in some hospitals, a similar admission rate has been achieved at this hospital by different means. In 1979 the admission rate to the neonatal unit was 15-7%. Seven years later it had fallen to 5-2% of babies delivered at the...

A 5-day course designed to train psychiatric hospital staff verbal and physical methods of preventing violence and injury when dealing with upset patients was taught to 89 staff from maximum and less secure wards. Compared to no-treatment controls, experimental subjects improved significantly on four tests of crisis-related tests and knowledge. Questionnaire and self-report measures from staff ...

OBJECTIVES The objective of the study was to analyse the association between the presence of air conditioning in hospital wards and the intrahospital mortality during the 2003 heatwave, in mainland Portugal. METHODS Historical cohort study design including all patients aged 45 or more who were hospitalised in the 7 days before the heatwave. The outcome was survival during the 18 days the heat...