OBJECTIVE To conduct a comprehensive assessment of the case-mix of patients admitted to tuberculosis hospitals and the reasons for their admission in four Russian regions: Ivanovo, Orel, Samara and Vladimir. We also sought to quantify the extent to which efficiency could be improved by reducing hospitalization rates and re-profiling hospital beds available in the tuberculosis-control system. ...

OBJECTIVE To assess the impact of implementing long-stay beds for patients of low complexity and high dependency in small hospitals on the performance of an emergency referral tertiary hospital. METHODS For this longitudinal study, we identified hospitals in three municipalities of a regional department of health covered by tertiary care that supplied 10 long-stay beds each. Patients were tra...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the efficacy of hospital at home schemes compared with inpatient care in patients with acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). DESIGN A systematic review of randomised controlled trials. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Mortality and readmission to hospital. RESULTS Seven trials with 754 patients were included in the review. Hospital readmission and...

Despite frequent discussions on regional variations in health care expenditure (HCE), few studies account for the sources of such regional disparities. This study bridges this gap in the body of knowledge by taking the following two steps. First, we explore the determinants of regional HCE in Japan, covering a data period that expands the scope of previous studies (i.e., the 2000s). Second, we ...

Beds: 391 Distinction: Top 5 percent of more than 700 large hospitals (300+ beds) in the portion of patients who gave a rating of 9 or 10 out of 10 when asked how they rate the hospital overall. Timeframe: October 2006 through June 2007. To be included, hospitals must have reported at least 300 surveys. See the Appendix for full methodology. This case study describes the strategies and factors ...

IMPORTANCE In 1939, English mathematician, geneticist, and psychiatrist Lionel Sharples Penrose hypothesized that the numbers of psychiatric hospital beds and the sizes of prison populations were inversely related; 75 years later, the question arises as to whether the hypothesis applies to recent developments in South America. OBJECTIVE To explore the possible association of changes in the nu...

BACKGROUND Most people prefer not to die in a hospital, and for those with palliative care needs, doing so may result in inappropriate care and poor outcomes. We examined place of death and factors associated with hospital death in a population eligible for palliative care. METHODS We used death certificate data to identify deaths from conditions eligible for palliative care and to examine pl...

The impact of effluent wastewaters from four different hospitals: a university (1456 beds), a general (350 beds), a pediatric (110 beds) and a maternity hospital (96 beds), which are conveyed to the same wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), was evaluated in the receiving urban wastewaters. The occurrence of 78 pharmaceuticals belonging to several therapeutic classes was assessed in hospital efflu...

INTRODUCTION Comparative analysis by Spanish Regional Communities (RC) of indicators related to morbidity and staffing in psychiatric care hospital over a period of time (1980-2004) marked by the initiation and development of deinstitutionalization policies and handover of powers to RC. METHODOLOGY Longitudinal study. Descriptive analysis of variables, broken down by RC, related to psychiatri...