BACKGROUND Measurement and monitoring of health care workers' hand hygiene compliance (i.e., actions/opportunities) is a key component of strategies to eliminate hospital-acquired infections. Little data exist on the expected number of hand hygiene opportunities (HHOs) in various hospital settings, however. The purpose of this study was to estimate HHOs in 2 types of hospitals--large teaching a...

OBJECTIVE to examine the effect of a multi-component, delirium prevention intervention on rates of incident delirium for patients admitted to specialist elderly care wards. DESIGN 'before' and 'after' study. SETTING three specialist elderly care wards in a general hospital. SUBJECTS older people admitted as emergencies. METHODS a multi-component delirium prevention intervention that tar...

OBJECTIVE To describe the uses of institutional and personal smartphones on General Internal Medicine wards and highlight potential consequences from their use. METHODS A mixed methods study consisting of both quantitative and qualitative research methods was conducted in General Internal Medicine wards across four academic teaching hospitals in Toronto, Ontario. Participants included medical...

Objective: To describe the uses of institutional and personal smartphones on General Internal Medicine wards and highlight potential consequences from their use. Methods: A mixed methods study consisting of both quantitative and qualitative research methods was conducted in General Internal Medicine wards across four academic teaching hospitals in Toronto, Ontario. Participants included medical...

background: assessment forms the backbone of undergraduate medical training especially in clinical contexts and clerkships, which are typically situated in environments lacking educational structure. this study aims to evaluate the viewpoints of medical interns in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics and obstetrics and gynecology wards about feedback and formative assessment. methods: 100 med...

OBJECTIVE To report the experience of implementing a 4-hour-rule program. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS A 3-2013 whole-of-hospital clinical service redesign program in a tertiary paediatric hospital in Western Australia, involving all patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2011. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Percentage of patients admitted, discha...

INTRODUCTION The number of acutely ill patients has risen in general wards due to the aging population, more advanced and complicated therapeutic methods, economic changes in the health system, therapeutic choices and shortage of intensive care unit beds. This may lead to adverse events and outcomes with catastrophic results. The purpose of this study was to describe the conditions of acutely i...

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...