INTRODUCTION On June 30, 2012, Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) funding was cut for refugee claimant healthcare. The potential financial and healthcare impacts of these cuts on refugee claimants are unknown. METHODS We conducted a one-year retrospective chart review spanning 6 months before and after IFHP funding cuts at The Hospital for Sick Children, a tertiary care children's hospital...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE Clinical pathways standardize care for common health conditions. We sought to assess whether institution-wide implementation of multiple standardized pathways was associated with changes in utilization and physical functioning after discharge among pediatric inpatients. METHODS Interrupted time series analysis of admissions to a tertiary care children's hospital from ...

In response to the Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa, the World Health Organization has advised all nations to prepare for the detection, investigation and management of confirmed and suspected EVD cases in order to prevent further spread through international travel. To gain insights into the state of preparedness of European hospitals, an electronic survey was circulated in Au...

OBJECTIVE The goal was to identify criteria that would allow low-risk infants presenting with an apparent life-threatening event to be discharged safely from the emergency department. METHODS We completed data forms prospectively on all previously healthy patients <12 months of age presenting to the emergency department of an urban tertiary care children's hospital with an apparent life-threa...

QUESTION UNDER STUDY To investigate the change over time in the number of ED admissions with positive blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and to evaluate predictors of BAC level. METHODS We conducted a single site retrospective study at the ED of a tertiary referral hospital (western part of Switzerland) and obtained all the BAC performed from 2002 to 2011. We determined the proportion of ED ad...

BACKGROUND We sought to determine the impact of delays to admission from the Emergency Department (ED) on inpatient length of stay (LOS), and IP cost. METHODS We conducted a retrospective analysis of 13,460 adult (>or= 18 yrs) ED visits between April 1 2006 and March 30 2007 at a tertiary care teaching hospital with two ED sites in which the mode of disposition was admission to ICU, surgery o...

AIM Different treatment strategies have been used to manage adolescents with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes. We investigated whether a brief elective hospital admission improves haemoglobin A(1c) (HbA(1c)) over 12 months. METHODS We studied a retrospective cohort of adolescents with poorly controlled type 1 diabetes attending a tertiary care pediatric diabetes clinic in Montreal, Canada, b...

OBJECTIVE To examine effectiveness of an intervention promoting vitamin D supplementation in hospitalized breastfed infants. METHODS Our urban tertiary care hospital instituted a 2-part intervention: brief education for providers on vitamin D guidelines and insertion of an opt-in order for vitamin D supplements into electronic admission order sets. Data downloads on admissions of patients age...

OBJECTIVES To develop a mathematical model for simulating the daily bed occupancy in an intensive care unit. DESIGN Data collection and retrospective analysis to develop a mathematical model for simulating daily bed occupancy in an intensive care unit. SETTING We studied all admissions to the intensive care unit at the Hospital of Navarra over a 9-yr period. PATIENTS Six-thousand three-hu...

BACKGROUND Bacteremia is a major pediatric health care problem despite the availability of new modalities in the management of this disease. The aim of the present study was to determine the incidence and pattern of bacteremia in pediatric group at a tertiary hospital in Riyadh, SaudiArabia. METHODS This retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, K...