BACKGROUND There is a growing consensus that linear approaches to improving the performance of health workers and health care organisations may only obtain short-term results. An alternative approach premised on the principle of human resource management described as a form of 'High commitment management', builds upon a bundles of balanced practices. This has been shown to contribute to better ...

OBJECTIVE To study the practice of nosocomial infection (NI) control in district hospitals. MATERIAL AND METHOD Descriptive study using questionnaires and group discussion. RESULTS From February-March 2002, five district hospitals in the northern region of Thailand were randomly enrolled. All members of the infection control committee (ICC) were included and data were available from 71 memb...

BACKGROUND Screening of alloantibodies in patients is not yet done in district hospitals of Rwanda. The practice is to transfuse ABO/D compatible blood following an immediate spin crossmatch (IS-XM) or indirect antiglobulin test crossmatch (IAT-XM). OBJECTIVES To assess the risk of red blood cell (RBC) alloimmunisation associated with the use of IS-XM compared to the IAT-XM in patients receiv...

Specialised medical care at district hospitals has not been thoroughly defined. Respiratory care data from 2008 in Barbanza and Cee hospitals (Galicia, Spain), were analysed to evaluate different approaches, as they are both similar. Barbanza hospital has a chest diseases clinic run by specialist doctors from the reference hospital three days per week, while Cee hospital is operated by the staf...

AIMS To estimate the nature and quantity of clinical experience available for trainees in paediatrics or general practice in acute general hospitals of differing sizes in the UK. To discuss implications for training and service configuration taking account of current Royal College recommendations (a minimum of 1,800 acute contacts each year and ideally covering a population of 450,000 to 500,00...

INTRODUCTION AIM The aim of the study was to explore and document what assists a rural district hospital to function well. The lessons learned may be applicable to similar hospitals all over the world. METHOD A cross-sectional exploratory study was carried out using in-depth interviews with 21 managers of well-functioning district hospitals in two districts in South Africa. RESULTS Thirt...

background public district hospitals (pdhs) in tunisia are not operating at full plant capacity and underutilize their operating budget.   methods individual pdhs capacity utilization (cu) is measured for 2000 and 2010 using dual data envelopment analysis (dea) approach with shadow prices input and output restrictions. the cu is estimated for 101 of 105 pdh in 2000 and 94 of 105 pdh in 2010.   ...

BACKGROUND Bangladesh has achieved remarkable progress in healthcare with a steady decline in maternal and under-5 child mortality rates in efforts to achieve Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5. However, the mortality rates are still very high compared with high-income countries. The quality of healthcare needs improve to reduce mortality rates further. It is essential to investigate the curr...

BACKGROUND Organizational factors are considered to be an important influence on health workers' uptake of interventions that improve their practices. These are additionally influenced by factors operating at individual and broader health system levels. We sought to explore contextual influences on worker motivation, a factor that may modify the effect of an intervention aimed at changing clini...

CONTEXT Severe malnutrition has a high mortality rate among hospitalized children in sub-Saharan Africa. However, reports suggest that malnutrition is often poorly assessed. The World Health Organization recommends using weight for height, but this method is problematic and often not undertaken in practice. Mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) and the clinical sign "visible severe wasting" are si...