BACKGROUND Intensive care unit (ICU) beds, a scarce resource, may require prioritization of admissions when demand exceeds supply. We evaluated the effect of ICU bed availability on processes and outcomes of care for hospitalized patients with sudden clinical deterioration. METHODS We identified consecutive hospitalized adults in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with sudden clinical deterioration tr...

INTRODUCTION For the assessment on medical response capacity for disaster in local area (such as rescue capacity, transport capacity and treatment capacity), it is necessary to assess it in peace time, and understand how many sufferers from disaster the hospital can respond to. Here the estimated formula of Hospital Treatment Capacity (hereinafter shortened to HTC), the maximum receivable numbe...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether bioethicists are distributed along a rural-to-urban continuum in a way that reflects potential need of those resources as determined by the general population, hospital facilities and hospital beds. METHODS US members of a large, multidisciplinary professional society, the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), the US population, hospital facilitie...

BACKGROUND Determining incidence rates of needlestick and sharps injuries (NSIs) using data from multiple hospitals may help hospitals to compare their in-house data with national averages and thereby institute relevant measures to minimize NSIs. We aimed to determine the incidence rate of NSIs using the nationwide EPINet surveillance system. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Data were analyzed ...

THE hospital from which the Royal Maternity evolved was conceived 140 years before at a meeting in the Linen Hall on 23rd December 1793 by a group of 180 ladies who called themselves "The Humane Female Society for the Relief of Lyingin-Women". After a short gestational period of 11 days the first Belfast Lying-in Hospital was born on 4th January 1794. It was a house No. 25 Donegall Street rente...

Up to the present, the required future number of hospital beds has been calculated under the assumption that changes in demography and length of stay are the major factors determining demand. It is recognised that a significant proportion of acute medical care could be moved into more community focussed models of care; however, there is no current method for estimating how many beds could be sa...

The Throne Hospital was built on a 28 acres site on the northern outskirts of Belfast and was opened in October 1874 as a convalescent hospital for children and adults; by its location it was well removed from the grimy atmosphere of central Belfast. Donations were headed by the Martin family from Killyleagh in memory of their son who had recently died from an infectious disease. Other signific...

INTRODUCTION In population-based studies, transfers into hospitals and hospital deaths are typically considered to be indicators of potentially inappropriate care settings at the end of life. Despite a plethora of research into where people die, few studies have examined whether hospital transfers at the end of life differ in rural versus urban areas. In the present study hospitalizations in th...