background: in-depth knowledge of antibiotic principles is widely considered a necessary condition for appropriate prescribing of antibiotics. the study aimed at determining the impact of healthcare providers’ level of knowledge in bacteriology and principles of antibiotic prescribing on their abilities to prescribe antibiotics appropriately. methods: a structured questionnaire survey targeting...

A total of 385 urine specimens from suspected urinary tract infections were subjected to bacteriological analysis and susceptibility testing at a major university hospital laboratory in Tehran. A battery of eight beta-Iactam antibiotics, commonly prescribed in Iran, and three third-generation cephalosporins (ceftazidime, ceftriaxone and ceftizoxime) that are usually reserved for limited us...

Background: The ”July effect” is a colloquialism asserting an increased rate of errors at the start of the academicyear in teaching hospitals. This retrospective population-based study evaluated for the presence of the July effect inperforming shoulder arthroplasty.Methods: Using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample for 2002 through 2011, a total of 178,590 patients undergoingshoulder arthroplasty a...

BACKGROUND Inpatient HIV/AIDS charges decreased from 1996-2000. This decrease was mainly attributable to treatment of HIV/AIDS patients with Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART). This study aims to evaluate the trend in inpatient charges from 2000-2004. METHODS Rhode Island Hospital Discharge Data (HDD) from 2000 to 2004 was used. International Classification of Disease (ICD-9) diagno...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the proportions of acute care inpatient admissions and hospital days for schizophrenia patients in the Medicaid program that are attributable to gaps in outpatient antipsychotic treatment and to calculate the corresponding total health care costs of this care. METHODS A series of multivariate regressions were performed with statewide 2001-2003 California Medicaid data to...

Over the past ten years, unconventional gas and oil drilling (UGOD) has markedly expanded in the United States. Despite substantial increases in well drilling, the health consequences of UGOD toxicant exposure remain unclear. This study examines an association between wells and healthcare use by zip code from 2007 to 2011 in Pennsylvania. Inpatient discharge databases from the Pennsylvania Heal...

The use of some recently developed and promising mental health treatments is likely to be restricted by their high cost. Cost-effectiveness studies, however, suggest that high treatment costs may be offset by associated reductions in inpatient service use. In view of the considerable variation in the cost of inpatient treatment for the mentally ill, it may be cost-efficient to use high-cost tre...

INTRODUCTION Inpatient hospital readmissions have become a focus for healthcare reform and cost-containment efforts. Initiatives targeting unanticipated readmissions have included care coordination for specific high readmission diseases and patients and health coaching during the post-discharge transition period. However, little research has focused on emergency department (ED) visits following...