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...

This work aimed at comparing the accuracy of the psychiatric diagnoses made under indirect supervision to the diagnoses obtained through Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R (SCID). The study was conducted in 3 university services (outpatient, inpatient and emergency). Data from the emergency service were collected 3 years later, after changes in the training process of the medical staff...

background: lack of access to health services has been mentioned as one of the main causes of health inequity in health system. the aim of this study was to measure horizontal inequity in access to outpatient services in shiraz. method: this household survey was conducted among 1608 participants above 18 years in shiraz in 2012. four-stage sampling was used. according to high amount of zero-val...

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: We evaluated changing HIV testing coverage and prevalence rates before and after expanding city-wide antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs in Lusaka, Zambia. METHODS: We conducted serial cross-sectional surveys on the University Teaching Hospital medical ward to assess HIV prevalence among inpatients of unknown status in 2003 and 2006. Willing participants received counseling and d...

BACKGROUND In Japan, all citizens are covered by the national insurance system in which universal free access to healthcare services is promised to everybody. There are no general physicians or gatekeepers in the Japanese healthcare system. METHODS We studied the pattern of referral of inpatients from secondary care hospitals to a tertiary care university hospital and the reverse referral und...

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...

To the Editor: Discharge against medical advice (DAMA) is common among psychiatric inpatients. A comprehensive review reported that the estimated prevalence ranged from 3% to 51% and increased over time.1 DAMA has received little attention in the medical literature, and most works were published a decade ago. The literature shows that patients requesting DAMA have poorer long-term prognoses,1 h...

The objective of this study was to estimate household costs (direct medical, direct non-medical and opportunity costs) associated with outpatient consultations and inpatient admissions at three tertiary hospitals in Lao PDR (national, university and regional hospitals). Revolving drug funds are the main sources of revenue for the facilities. We used outpatient exit interviews and interviews wit...

BACKGROUND People with chronic non-communicable diseases (NCD) are particularly vulnerable to socioeconomic inequality due to their long-term expensive health needs. This study aimed to assess socioeconomic-related inequality in health service utilization among NCD patients in China and to analyze factors associated with this disparity. METHODS Data were taken from the 2008 Chinese National H...