Surgical site infections (SSIs) account for 11% of nosocomial infections among older patients. This report reviews the available data and presents medical and surgical perspectives on the epidemiology, outcomes, and prevention of SSI in the elderly population. The risk for SSI does not seem to increase after the age of 65 years. Several risk factors for SSI are similar among elderly patients an...

BACKGROUND As the population ages, an increasing number of acute medical patients will be older and have comorbidities that may interact with their primary admission condition and worsen their prognosis. OBJECTIVES To examine whether 6-month mortality following acute medical admission was associated with gender, age, or comorbidity. METHODS We used the Danish National Patient Registry, cove...

OBJECTIVE To determine the association of the Martin Luther King Jr Hospital (MLK) closure on the distribution of admissions on adjacent trauma centres, and injury mortality rates in these centres and within the county. DESIGN Observational, retrospective study. SETTING Non-public patient-level data from the state of California were obtained for all trauma patients from 1999 to 2009. Geospa...

National priorities and performance management regimes in the National Health Services of England and Wales diverged following devolution, most notably with respect to the use of waiting time targets, which have been progressively strengthened in England but were abandoned in Wales in the immediate post-devolution period. We analyse routine data collected over a six-year period from three Engli...

Between 1996 and 2009 the annual number of emergency department (ED) visits in the United States increased by 51 percent while the number of EDs nationwide decreased by 6 percent, which placed unprecedented strain on the nation's EDs. To investigate the effects of an ED's closing on surrounding communities, we identified all ED closures in California during the period 1999-2010 and examined the...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Mounting evidence points to a decline in stroke incidence. However, little is known about recent patterns of stroke hospitalization within the buckle of the stroke belt. This study aims to investigate the age- and race-specific secular trends in stroke hospitalization rates, inpatient stroke mortality rates, and related hospitalization charges during the past decade in So...

Patients with epilepsy have a mortality rate higher than that of the general population. Some of this excess mortality is attributable to sudden unexpected death (SUDEP). We examined the incidence of this phenomenon both retrospectively and prospectively in the population of South Dublin and Wicklow over the period May 1992-1995. Cases were ascertained by examination of post-mortem registers of...

BACKGROUND The hospital standardized mortality ratio (HSMR) is developed to evaluate and improve hospital quality. Different methods can be used to standardize the hospital mortality ratio. Our aim was to assess the validity and applicability of directly and indirectly standardized hospital mortality ratios. METHODS Retrospective scenario analysis using routinely collected hospital data to co...