The research presented in this paper investigates how observation of informationand communication-intensive work in hospital wards can be used to produce requirements for mobile clinical information systems. Over a number of years, we have explored how important properties of clinical situations can be captured through structured observations of actors, processes, and systems. In the paper, we ...

Background The timing of intravenous antibiotic administration and lactate measurement is associated with survival of septic shock patients. Septic shock patients were admitted to the medical intensive care unit (MICU) from 2 major sources: hospital ward and emergency department (ED). This study aimed to compare the timing of antibiotic administration and lactate measurement between hospital wa...

The unintentional omission of medication is one of the most commonly-reported administration errors on hospital wards throughout the world. The omission of a dose of medication can severely harm the patient affected, but to date there is limited evidence about cost-effective means for reducing the incidence of such errors. The current report describes a quality improvement project, conducted on...

INTRODUCTION Observation and assessment wards allow patients to be observed on a short-term basis and permit patient monitoring and/or treatment for an initial 24-48 hour period. They should permit concentration of emergency activity and resources in one area, and so improve efficiency and minimise disruption to other hospital services. These types of ward go under a variety of names, including...

Introduction: The improvement of technology has increased noise levels in hospital Wards to higher than international standard levels (35-45 dB). Higher noise levels than the maximum level result in patient’s instability and dissatisfaction. Moreover, it will have serious negative effects on the staff’s health and the quality of their services. The purpose of this survey is to analyze the leve...

Aim: To document 1) that patient safety culture scores vary not only by individual responder, but also, and to a large degree, by ward and department, and 2) that more of the variation is across wards than across departments. Setting: 500-bed Norwegian university hospital September-December 2006. Methods: Data collected from 1400 staff by (the Norwegian version of) the generic version of the Sa...

Background and Purpose Shorter lengths of hospital stay in stroke units could be due to quicker functional recovery or mechanisms of expediting hospital discharge. Methods Stroke survivors with an intermediate prognosis at 2 weeks after stroke (n=146) were randomized for management in a stroke rehabilitation unit or in general wards. Barthel scores were monitored at weekly intervals until hospi...