Objective. To prospectively determine the rate of unplanned extubations and contributing factors and determine whether a targeted intervention program would be successful in decreasing the rate of unplanned extubations. Design. Prospective, observational study. Setting. A 10-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). Patients. All intubated pediatric patients during two time periods: September 1...

Mobile Government stands for a local flexible application of electronic information and communication technology to enable communication with or within government and administration by means of mobile devices and without fixed access points. The term “Mobilized Administration” refers to a part of Mobile Government, because it only refers to the administration as the mobile partner of communicat...

OBJECTIVES To determine the rate of unplanned readmission after transoral robotic surgery (TORS), and to determine which patient or surgical factors increase the likelihood of readmission. MATERIALS AND METHODS Retrospective chart review of all patients who underwent TORS for squamous cell carcinoma at our institution from March 2010 through July 2016. Primary outcome was unplanned readmissio...

BACKGROUND Unplanned extubation represents a threat to patient safety, and risk factors and prevention strategies for unplanned extubation have not been fully explored. OBJECTIVES To define high-risk patients for unplanned extubation and determine clinicians' beliefs on perceived risks for unplanned extubation METHODS With a Web-based survey instrument we surveyed critical care clinician me...

BACKGROUND Ideally, care prior to the initiation of dialysis should increase the likelihood that patients start electively outside of the hospital setting with a mature arteriovenous fistula (AVF) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) catheter. However, unplanned dialysis continues to occur in patients both known and unknown to nephrology services, and in both late and early referrals. The objective of t...

Background Identifying risk factors for unplanned extubation in patients receiving mechanical ventilation can help guide prevention strategies. Objective To assess the risk of unplanned extubation with different sedation strategies. Methods A 36-month quality improvement study in a 33-bed intensive care unit at a tertiary-care center. Results A total of 92 unplanned extubations occurred (7.5 ev...

BACKGROUND Intervention time series analysis (ITSA) is an important method for analysing the effect of sudden events on time series data. ITSA methods are quasi-experimental in nature and the validity of modelling with these methods depends upon assumptions about the timing of the intervention and the response of the process to it. METHOD This paper describes how to apply ITSA to analyse the ...

There has been relatively little research on the economic impacts of natural disasters to date. This paper reports findings of a sUidy of the Philippines which is intended as a contribution in filling that gap. Findings include the following: • The Philippines experiences all major types of naUiral hazard and is widely acknowledged as one of the most hazard-prone countries in the world. Moreove...

Substance dependence, or ‘addiction’, is diagnosed taking several factors into consideration (Box 1). Substance misuse refers to the non-therapeutic use of drugs in a manner that is potentially harmful, but does not meet criteria for dependence. Guidelines for drug addiction treatment have been published by the Department of Health (1999). Many trials report significant benefits of addiction tr...

HIGHLIGHTS ■ Nigeria has one of the highest maternal mortality ratios in the world: 1,100 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births. ■ Although patterns vary by region, high-risk births persist in Nigeria. In both 1990 and 2003, two-thirds of all births were high risk because of the mother's age, parity or spacing of births. ■ More than 40% of women giving birth do not receive prenatal care...