OBJECTIVES To determine the possible impact on hospital bed occupancy if a "rapid diagnosis and treatment centre" (RDTC) were operational; to determine the number of patients that such a unit should be able to accommodate to avoid delays in transfer to this unit. DESIGN Retrospective review of accident and emergency (A&E) department notes from consecutive adults over a 16 day period. SETTIN...

health systems across the world are concerned with the quality and safety of patient care. this includes investing in research and development to progress advances in the treatment and management of individuals and healthcare organisations. the concept of evidence- based healthcare has gained increasing currency over the last two decades; yet questions persist about the time it takes for new re...

Utilisation and minimisation of spent tyre stockpiles has been made more viable by pyrolysis activation to produce low-cost activated carbons. The unique chemical composition chars (STPC), particularly the high Zn content, shown affect their subsequent utilisation. Nonetheless, little research examined exactly how these additives and, ultimately, what becomes during process. This paper presents...

BACKGROUND over 60% of older people have at least one admission to hospital in their last year of life, with the majority of people having multiple admissions. In Bankstown, New South Wales, Australia, we have a diverse ethnic and cultural population. We were interested in bed utilisation, documentation, and follow through of "care plans" as well as "not for resuscitation" orders in the last ye...

BACKGROUND Increasing demand for limited healthcare resources raises questions about appropriate use of inpatient beds. In the first paediatric bed utilisation study at a regional university centre in Ireland, we conducted a cross-sectional study to audit the utilisation of inpatient beds at the Regional Paediatric Unit (RPU) in University Hospital Limerick (UHL), Limerick, Ireland and also exa...

STUDY OBJECTIVE To assess whether populations with access to general practitioner hospitals (GP hospitals) utilise general hospitals less than populations without such access. DESIGN Observational study comparing the total rates of admissions and of occupied bed days in general hospitals between populations with and without access to GP hospitals. Comparisons were also made separately for dia...

Objective-To examine whether there are too many hospital beds in London. Design-Analysis of data from the Hospital InPatient Enquiry, Mental Health Enquiry, health service indicators, and Emergency Bed Service. Setting-England, London, and inner London. Results-Hospital admission rates for acute plus geriatric services for London residents were very similar to the national values in all age gro...

Institutional care is a growing component of health care costs in low- and middle-income countries, but local health planners in these countries have inadequate knowledge of the costs of different medical services. In India, greater utilisation of hospital services is driven both by rising incomes and by government insurance programmes that cover the cost of inpatient services; however, there i...

OBJECTIVE Despite a growing volume of surgical procedures in low-income and middle-income countries, the costs of these procedures are not well understood. We estimated the costs of 12 surgical procedures commonly conducted in five different types of hospitals in India from the provider perspective, using a microcosting method. DESIGN Cost and utilisation data were collected retrospectively f...

Background Nepal has made remarkable improvements in maternal health outcomes. The implementation of demand and supply side strategies have often been attributed with the observed increase in utilization of maternal healthcare services. In 2005, Free Delivery Care (FDC) policy was implemented under the name of Maternity Incentive Scheme (MIS), with the intention of reducing transport costs asso...