OBJECTIVES Over the last 10 years, appropriate workforce utilisation has been an important discussion among healthcare practitioners and policy-makers. The role of healthcare aides (HCAs) has also expanded to improve their utilisation. This evolving role of HCAs in Canada has prompted calls for standardised training, education and scope of practice for HCAs. The purpose of this research was to ...

Case management has evolved from a grassroots method to assist patients and facilities to navigate changes in the healthcare system, to a fully fledged profession with core competencies, Standards of Practice, and an evidence-based peer review journal. With the latest healthcare reform, it is clear that case management leads to many initiatives: it is our time to lead.

The escalating costs of inpatient care have resulted in the increased utilization of outpatient facilities and home care. As the sites of care proliferate, the system of healthcare delivery must be integrated so that healthcare provision is both cost-effective and safe.

BACKGROUND The two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, which is one of the most widely used methods for measuring healthcare spatial accessibility, defines the catchment area of each facility as the area within a certain distance from the facility. However, in some cases, the service utilization behavior is constrained by administrative boundaries, therefore the definition of catchment...

Intravascular catheters are indispensable tools in acute care, but with the benefits come the risk of local or systemic Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs). In fact, more than 250,000-500,000 intravascular-related bloodstream infections occur in the United States each year with resulting mortality rates of 12%–25%. (Maki, Kluger & Crnich, 2006; CDC, 2002). While bloodstream infections related...

BACKGROUND Although dengue is endemic in Puerto Rico (PR), 2007 and 2010 were recognized as epidemic years. In the continental United States (US), outside of the Texas-Mexico border, there had not been a dengue outbreak since 1946 until dengue re-emerged in Key West, Florida (FL), in 2009-2010. The objective of this study was to use electronic and manual surveillance systems to identify dengue ...

Cleaning Failure to adequately clean instrument results in higher bioburden, protein load, and salt concentration. These will decrease sterilization efficacy. Bioburden The natural bioburden of used surgical devices is 10 to 10 organisms (primarily vegetative bacteria), which is substantially below the 10-10 spores used with biological indicators. Pathogen type Spore-forming organisms are most ...

OBJECTIVE To describe the drug prescribing pattern for hypertension at primary healthcare facilities throughout Trinidad. METHODS A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted at 22 primary healthcare facilities across Trinidad using a de novo, pilot-tested questionnaire during June to August 2006. RESULTS A total of 547 hypertensive patients were recruited into the study. There was a...

As RFID technology matures, it has huge potential for numerous applications in disparate fields of study. Due to the potential benefit and transformational technology that RFID promises, the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is dedicated to adopting passive RFID technology (United States Department of Defense suppliers’ passive RFID Information guide version 10.0, 2008). RFID has potent...