OBJECTIVES To explore temporal associations between planned antibiotic stewardship and infection control interventions and the molecular epidemiology of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). DESIGN Retrospective ecological study and time-series analysis integrating typing data from the Scottish MRSA reference laboratory. SETTING Regional hospital and primary care in a Scottish...

BACKGROUND Increasing hospital-acquired infections have generated much attention over the last decade. There is evidence that hygienic cleaning has a role in the control of hospital-acquired infections. This study aimed to evaluate the potential impact of one additional cleaner by using microbiological standards based on aerobic colony counts and the presence of Staphylococcus aureus including ...

OBJECTIVE The Coordination reform was implemented in Norway from 2012, aiming at seamless patient trajectories. All municipalities are required to establish emergency care beds (MEBs) to avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. We aimed to examine occupancy rate, patient characteristics, diagnoses and discharge level of municipal care in a small MEB unit. DESIGN Cross-sectional, observational s...

In 2010/11, the influenza season in England was marked by a relative increase in impact on the population compared to that seen during the 2009/10 pandemic, with the same influenza subtype, A(H1N1)pdm09, circulating. The peaks in critical care bed occupancy in both seasons coincided with peaks in influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 activity, but onset of influenza in 2010/11 additionally coincided with nota...

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...

BACKGROUND Many hospitals lack the facilities for high dependency care, and patients requiring this level of care are nursed on the surgical ward. The aim of this study was to assess the extent of this problem in a district general hospital, looking at the impact of providing high dependency unit (HDU) care at ward level. METHODS A 28 bed surgical ward was studied for 39 consecutive days. Pat...

This article reports the qualitative element of an observational study that examined whether an extended alarm service using fall detectors and bed occupancy sensors could reduce fear of falling among community-dwelling older people who had recurrent falls. The 17 participants in the intervention group used the extended alarm service while the 18 in the control group used a standard pendant ala...

The association of mortality with patient factors (severity of illness, comorbidity), physician factors (specialty training, prehospitalisation visit, in-hospital consultation, volume of patients seen per physician) and healthcare organisation factors (patient-travel distances, regional beds per capita, admitting hospital-bed occupancy, admitting hospital-bed turnover, hospital location, volume...