OBJECTIVE To see whether elderly medical in-patients screening positive for depression on the Geriatric Depression Score show any change on discharge home and whether their scores predict this. DESIGN A prospective study. SETTING A large outer London district general hospital with acute wards for all medical admissions of people aged over 75 years. PARTICIPANTS We studied 179 consecutive ...

The authors systematically studied the introduction of animal-assisted activity into a children's hospital in Italy. This pilot study examined the reactions of children, their parents and the hospital staff and the hospital-wide infection rate before and after the introduction of animals. The SAM (self-assessment manikin), three behavioral scales, analysis of children's graphic productions, a p...

Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) remains the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections and is an immediate threat to public health that requires urgent and aggressive measures. This clinico-epidemiological study was conducted between 1 Ianuary 2014 31 December 2015 and included 37 patients who developed acute diarrhoeal disease (ADD) during hospitalization and were diagnosed with e...

A lack of consistency in the management of alcohol withdrawal was identified at the trust. A multidisciplinary working group was set up to review the existing policies, and evaluate the evidence available. A trust-wide policy was introduced and the Clinical Institute Withdrawal from Alcohol score was used to manage alcohol withdrawal. Three main wards were identified for audit and education – e...

STUDY OBJECTIVE The aim was to assess the relationship between social deprivation, as measured by the Jarman under-privileged area score (UPA score), and psychiatric admission rates and length of stay within an inner London borough. DESIGN The study was a retrospective survey of psychiatric admission rates for electoral wards in the London borough of Islington in relation to Jarman UPA scores...

BACKGROUND Healthcare providers are considered the primary conduit of compassion in healthcare. Although most healthcare providers desire to provide compassion, and patients and families expect to receive it, an evidence-based understanding of the construct and its associated dimensions from the perspective of healthcare providers is needed. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to investigate...

BACKGROUND Aim of study was to document 1) that patient safety culture scores vary considerably by hospital department and ward, and 2) that much of the variation is across the lowest level organizational units: the wards. Setting of study: 500-bed Norwegian university hospital, September-December 2006. METHODS Data collected from 1400 staff by (the Norwegian version of) the generic version o...

BACKGROUND A significant proportion of older people state a preference to die at home. However, the vast majority of people in hospital recognised as dying subsequently die there. OBJECTIVES To identify the proportion of older people dying in hospital where the possibility of ending life elsewhere was explored. To identify factors that could support hospital staff to enable patients' wishes t...

OBJECTIVE To test whether strict implementation of a standardised protocol for the management of malaria and provision of a financial incentive for health workers reduced mortality. DESIGN Randomised controlled intervention trial. SETTING Paediatric ward at the national hospital in Guinea-Bissau. All children admitted to hospital with severe malaria received free drug kits. PARTICIPANTS 9...

Acute abdominal pain is one of the most frequent reasons for admitting patients to the emergency department for surgical evaluation. A wide number of differential diagnoses are available and their pre-test likelihood ratio varies according to the patients' age, gender, duration of symptoms and overall clinical context. While many patients with abdominal pain do not need to be admitted to the ho...