This article describes the architectural design of a secure forensic state psychiatric hospital. The project combined input from staff at all levels of the client organization, outside consultants, and a team of experienced architects. The design team was able to create a design that maximized patient dignity and privacy on one hand, and the ability of staff to observe all patient activity on t...

BACKGROUND There is a great disparity in spatial accessibility to hospital care between ethnic minority and non-minority regions in China. Being one of the basic social demands, spatial access to hospital care in minority regions draws increasing attention in China in recent years. We performed this study to have a better understanding of spatial access to hospital care in ethnic minority regio...

BACKGROUND During each winter the hospital quality of care (QoC) in pediatric wards decreases due to a surge in pediatric infectious diseases leading to overcrowded units. Bed occupancy rates often surpass the good hospital bed management threshold of 85%, which can result in poor conditions in the workplace. This study explores how QoC-scores could be improved by investing in additional beds a...

In Mongolia, a Central Asian lower-middle income country, intensive care medicine is an under-resourced and-developed medical specialty. The burden of critical illness and capacity of intensive care unit (ICU) services in the country is unknown. In this nationwide census, we collected data on adult and pediatric/neonatal ICU capacities and the number of ICU admissions in 2014. All hospitals reg...

BACKGROUND Roemer's Law, a widely cited principle in health care policy, states that hospital beds that are built tend to be used. This simple but powerful expression has been invoked to justify Certificate of Need regulation of hospital beds in an effort to contain health care costs. Despite its influence, a surprisingly small body of empirical evidence supports its content. Furthermore, known...

The use of a total joint replacement surgery has been growing in a manner which is poorly understood. This growth is more likely to be limited by saturation of the available medical services than by a limit to the number of people who could benefit from the treatment. Present indications are that services will be saturated in 1974 or 1975, after which 4600 extra people a year will go on to the ...

THIS pilot study was carried out in Belfast during the period of civil unrest. A general medical ward with a once-weekly take-in of emergency admissions over a 24 hour period was the place of study. In order that beds become available for new admissions each week the turnover of patients must of necessity be rapid. It appeared to us that some beds became 'blocked' by patients who could not be d...