This paper reports on the facilitators and barriers to the development and implementation of a pilot study undertaken in collaboration by clinicians from an Australian Area Health Service and academics from The University of Newcastle. It includes a description of a computerised clinical chart audit tool that may be developed to automate audits in the future. The pilot study investigated the ef...

BACKGROUND Laboratory request forms provide information about the laboratory test being requested for. They carry demographic data and other information such as location of patient, laboratory number, doctor's name, signature of the doctor, telephone number of the requesting doctor. Omission of information on the forms may lead to laboratory errors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the lev...

AIMS This paper describes the perceptions of nurse managers about their dual role in nursing units as cost centres. BACKGROUND The tertiary hospital in the Limpopo province is the first institution to appoint nurse managers with a dual role in cost centres. The development of a conceptual framework for a context-specific programme for Cost Centre Managers is the first of its nature in South A...

We conducted this cross-sectional study among 392 Japanese and 294 Vietnamese mothers who attended routine child health visits in a Japanese city and at a tertiary hospital in Vietnam, in order to investigate the prevalence and associated sociodemographic, parenting, and psychological characteristics of low maternal confidence in child rearing among them. All data were collected from medical fi...

Arizona is a large state that has undergone profound population changes since the end of World War II. It has two major population centers (Phoenix and Tucson) that together account for approximately 75% of the state’s population. Much of the remaining population is found in small communities scattered throughout the state. There is a high Native American population, largely rural but with some...

Under the National Health Insurance, a hospital is expected to provide service to patients based on its category. However, in reality the tertiary hospitals offer every level of care, resulting in poor quality of care and over-expenditure. The Polokwane/Mankweng Hospital Complex is a provincial tertiary hospital that delivers tertiary care as well as dealing with some secondary and primary care...

INTRODUCTION A disproportionate number of surgeries in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are performed in tertiary facilities. The referral process may be an under-recognized barrier to timely and cost-effective surgical care. This study aimed to assess the quality of referrals for surgery to a tertiary hospital in Ghana and identify ways to improve access to timely care. METHODS All e...

INTRODUCTION Right siting has been actively advocated to mitigate rising healthcare costs as well as to free up tertiary resources for the provision of care to more complex patients, research and education. There are, however, concerns that in a block budget setting right siting will reduce patient volumes, thus impacting on subsequent funding allocations and also patient revenues. We sought to...

Methods We interviewed women from the inpatient post-natal unit at BMC about what herbs they used during pregnancy, socioeconomic factors, changes to diet, and use of prenatal vitamins. A chart review documented diagnosed medical conditions. We asked women if they discussed the use of herbs with their prenatal care provider, and how satisfied they were with these discussions; we asked the same ...