the present study was designed in quasi-experiment to assess adoption of the essential clauses of particular clinical laboratory quality management requirements based on international organization for standardization (iso 15189) in hospital laboratories and to evaluate the cost effectiveness of compliance to iso 15189.the quality management intervention based on iso 15189 was conceded through t...

AIMS To assess the clinical effectiveness of a paediatric hospital at home service compared to conventional hospital care. METHODS A total of 399 children suffering from breathing difficulty (n = 202), diarrhoea and vomiting (n = 125), or fever (n = 72) were randomised to Hospital at Home or in-patient paediatric care. Main outcome measures were: comparative clinical effectiveness as measured...

BACKGROUND/AIMS We present the preliminary results of a cost-effectiveness analysis of cyberknife radiosurgery (CKR) versus microvascular decompression (MVD) for patients with medically unresponsive trigeminal neuralgia. METHODS Direct healthcare costs from hospital's perspective attributable to CKR and MVD were collected. Pain level caused by trigeminal neuralgia was measured through the Bar...

INTRODUCTION The strength of evidence underpinning care and treatment recommendations in traumatic brain injury (TBI) is low. Comparative effectiveness research (CER) has been proposed as a framework to provide evidence for optimal care for TBI patients. The first step in CER is to map the existing variation. The aim of current study is to quantify variation in general structural and process ch...

Early intervention by teams specialising in the treatment of early psychosis has been suggested to enhance outcome in the early phase of psychotic illness. Two papers in the Journal address this topic. The first examines the cost-effectiveness of these services, while the second examines the 5-year outcome of one such service. McCrone and colleagues (pp. 377–382) report that although their spec...

BACKGROUND This study focuses on people with complex and severe mental health problems who require inpatient rehabilitation. The majority have a diagnosis of schizophrenia whose recovery has been delayed due to non-response to first-line treatments, cognitive impairment, negative symptoms and co-existing problems such as substance misuse. These problems contribute to major impairments in social...

BACKGROUND Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common nosocomial infection experienced by patients in United States hospitals and are responsible for significant morbidity and excess hospital costs. The purpose of this study was to determine the efficacy of a silver alloy, hydrogel-coated, urinary catheter in the prevention of catheter-associated UTI, to assess the cost effectiveness o...