Some of the problems of ward management are reviewed. Methods suggested for dealing with them are probably not the ideals that should ultimately be attained but minimum standards to serve as immediate objectives. They concern indications for and methods of isolation, control of infection from staff, environmental contamination, and a few technical procedures. A new type of dressing towel for wo...

Flexibility in the usage of clinical beds is considered to be a key element to efficiently organize critical capacity. However, full flexibility can have some major drawbacks as large systems are more difficult to manage, lack effective care delivery due to absence of focus and require multi-skilled medical teams. In this paper, we identify practical guidelines on how beds should be allocated t...

OBJECTIVE To determine the relationship between hospital admissions for falls and hip fracture in elderly people and area characteristics such as socio-economic deprivation. STUDY DESIGN Ecological study of routinely collected hospital admissions data for falls and hip fracture in people aged 75 years or over for 1992-1997, linked at electoral ward level with characteristics from census data....

Waiting times for cardiac surgery is a significant problem in the medical world. The fact that patients' length of stay varies considerably makes effective hospital operation a difficult job. This paper analyzes patients' length of stay in hospital wards following cardiac surgery. Three scenarios for hospital management are presented and evaluated using Markov chain theory and simulation experi...

OBJECTIVES Hospitals as integrated parts of the wide-ranging health care systems have dominant focus on health care provision to meet, maintain and promote people's health needs of a community. This study aimed to assess the service quality of teaching hospitals of Yazd University of Medical Sciences using Fuzzy Analytical Hierarchy Process (FAHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarit...

BACKGROUND Most documented "superspreading events" of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) occurred in hospitals, but the underlying causes remain unclear. We systematically analyzed the risk factors for nosocomial outbreaks of SARS among hospital wards in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, China. METHODS A case-control study was conducted. Case wards were hospital wards in which superspreading eve...

OBJECTIVE To determine the efficacy of a targeted multifactorial falls prevention programme in elderly care wards with relatively short lengths of stay. DESIGN Cluster randomised trial. SETTING 24 elderly care wards in 12 hospitals in Sydney, Australia. PARTICIPANTS 3999 patients, mean age 79 years, with a median hospital stay of seven days. INTERVENTIONS A nurse and physiotherapist eac...

background: adolescents admitted to hospital are either surrounded by children or adults. however, age-appropriate facilities are often not provided to meet the needs of adolescents, which should be incorporated in the wards. this study compares the satisfaction level about physical environment of the wards among adolescents who have been admitted to pediatric and adult wards. materials and met...

BACKGROUND Comprehensive geriatric assessment and multidisciplinary intervention are of proven benefit in the care of older people. OBJECTIVE To determine whether patients' multidisciplinary needs in hospital can be met by current service provision. DESIGN A comprehensive census assessing the multidisciplinary needs of an entire inpatient population compared to available multidisciplinary t...

BACKGROUND In addition to the effectiveness of hospital care models for terminal patients, policy makers and health care payers are concerned about their costs. This study aims to measure the hospital costs of treating terminal patients in Belgium from the health care payer perspective. Also, this study compares the costs of palliative and usual care in different types of hospital wards. METH...