Critically ill patients, eligible for admission into intensive care units (ICUs), are often hospitalized in other wards due to a lack of ICU beds. Differences in morbidity between patients managed in ICUs and elsewhere are unknown, specifically the morbidity related to hospital-acquired infection. Patients fitting ICU admission criteria were identified by screening five entire hospitals on four...

OBJECTIVE To assess the relationship of bacterial and fungal contamination on used surgical masks worn by the hospital personnel and microbial air quality in their working wards. METHODS This is a cross-sectional study of 230 used surgical masks collected from 214 hospital personnel, and 215 indoor air samples collected from their working wards to culture for bacterial and fungal counts. This...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of the 6-PACK programme on falls and fall injuries in acute wards. DESIGN Cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING Six Australian hospitals. PARTICIPANTS All patients admitted to 24 acute wards during the trial period. INTERVENTIONS Participating wards were randomly assigned to receive either the nurse led 6-PACK programme or usual care over 12 month...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the medical decisions at end-of-life of patients admitted at HU/UFSC and to compare these decisions and the profile of patients who died in the intensive care unit (ICU) to those who died in medical (MW) and surgical wards (SW). METHODS This is a retrospective and observational study. Demographic data, clinical features, treatment and the end-of-life care decisions of a...

DESIGN Cluster randomised crossover trial with seven wards randomly allocated to intervention or control arm. SETTING Medical and surgical wards of a university hospital with active MRSA control programme. PARTICIPANTS All patients hospitalized >48 h in study wards and screened for MRSA on admission and discharge Intervention: Rapid PCR-based screening test for MRSA compared with control sc...