INTRODUCTION The benefits of rotavirus (RV) vaccination in developed countries have focused on reductions in mortality, hospitalization and medical visits, and herd protection. We investigated other aspects related to RV-induced nosocomial infection, duration of hospital stay, age shift, and sustained vaccine impact (VI) over time. METHOD RotaBIS (Rotavirus Belgian Impact Study; ClinicalTrial...

I would like to start by thanking the organisers and Federico for inviting me to offer comments on these five very interesting papers. To provide a framework for my comments, let me mention an ongoing initiative that is closely related to the main theme of this session. The European Central Bank and the national central banks composing the Eurosystem are currently collaborating on the design of...

BACKGROUND Patient overcrowding and violent assaults by patients are two major problems in psychiatric healthcare. However, evidence of an association between overcrowding and aggressive behaviour among patients is mixed and limited to small-scale studies. AIMS This study examined the association between ward overcrowding and violent physical assaults in acute-care psychiatric in-patient hosp...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effect of the 6-PACK programme on falls and fall injuries in acute wards. DESIGN Cluster randomised controlled trial. SETTING Six Australian hospitals. PARTICIPANTS All patients admitted to 24 acute wards during the trial period. INTERVENTIONS Participating wards were randomly assigned to receive either the nurse led 6-PACK programme or usual care over 12 month...

Background Studies in adults suggest that early initiation of anti-retroviral therapy (ART), during treatment of those presenting with opportunistic infections, results in better outcomes than deferred treatment. However, data on the effects of early treatment of children are sparse. Kilifi district hospital (KDH) serves a population of over 250,000. It provides HIV services and ART. All childr...

A reflection is made, from an interpretative perspective, on the historical evolution of health care in the West. It starts from the moment that this became a way to intervene the sick and an instrument for healing diseases, focusing on original documents and written sources which account for results of historical research, which range from XV century until today. To do this, it tries to unders...

Background Because numerous studies have revealed the negative consequences of stigmatisation, this study explores the determinants of stigma experiences. In particular, it examines whether or not part-time hospitalisation in contemporary psychiatric hospitals is associated with less stigma experiences than full-time hospitalisation. Methods Survey data on 378 clients of 42 wards from 8 psychia...

23 8 0 31 Summary of the Madras statistics. (1) The number of gastric operations has increased from 8 in 1918 to 260 in 1926. (2) The total of all admissions for these ulcers has increased from 205 in 1922 to 422 in 1926. (3) There was a sudden increase in gastric operations from 12 in 1921 to 132 in 1922. (4) All duodenal ulcers are admitted to the surgical wards and two out of three undergo o...

OBJECTIVE To describe complaints by patients and compare rates of complaint in demographic subgroups of patients and hospital departments. DESIGN AND SETTING Retrospective analysis of complaints made by patients attending 67 hospitals (metropolitan, 25; rural, 42) in Victoria, and lodged with the Victorian Health Complaint Information Program (January 1997 - December 2001). MAIN OUTCOME MEA...

OBJECTIVES We aimed to ascertain the efficacy of an intervention in which laboratory test costs were provided to clinicians as a pocket-sized brochure, in reducing laboratory test costs over a 4-month period. METHODS This was a non-randomised intervention study in the Internal Medicine wards at Steve Biko Academic Hospital, Pretoria, in which the intervention was laboratory test costs provide...