BACKGROUND The goal of this study was to develop a validated prediction rule for identification of patients harboring vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) at hospital admission. METHODS A model for the prediction of patients harboring VRE at admission was created and validated by assigning weighted point values to independent risk factors associated with harboring VRE at admission, in 2 dif...

Hospital spending represents approximately one third of total national health spending, and the majority of hospital spending is by public payers. Elderly individuals with long-term care needs are at particular risk for hospitalization. While some hospitalizations are unavoidable, many are not, and there may be benefits to reducing hospitalizations in terms of health and cost. This article revi...

BACKGROUND Mild or pre-frailty is common and associated with increased risks of hospitalisation, functional decline, moves to long-term care, and death. Little is known about the effectiveness of health promotion in reducing these risks. This systematic review aimed to synthesise randomised controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating home and community-based health promotion interventions for older peo...

BACKGROUND Few epidemiological data on hip fractures were previously available in Lithuania. The aim of this study was to estimate the incidence and hospital costs of hip fractures in Vilnius in 2010. METHODS Data were collected from the medical charts of all patients admitted to hospitals in Vilnius (population, 548,835) due to new low-energy trauma hip fracture, during 2010. The estimated c...

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and a significant proportion of stroke survivors require long-term institutional care. Understanding who cannot be discharged home is important for health and social care planning. Our aim was to establish predictive factors for discharge to institutional care after hospitalization for stroke. DESIGN We registered and co...

OBJECTIVES To explore the association between the number of physicians providing care and anticholinergic drug burden in older persons newly initiated on cholinesterase inhibitor therapy for the management of dementia. DESIGN Population-based cross-sectional study. SETTING Community and long-term care, Ontario, Canada. PARTICIPANTS Community-dwelling (n = 79,067, mean age 81.0, 60.8% fema...

Trauma remains a leading cause of death and disability in America, and motor vehicle crashes (MVC) are the most common cause of serious injury in West Virginia. In this study, we examined the role of seat belt use or non-use in the death, disability, and hospital charges of 500 patients admitted after MVC to a rural Level 1 trauma center in 1990. Eighty percent of the patients who required hosp...