OBJECTIVE To survey general practitioners' opinions of the quality of care offered by an urban accident and emergency (A&E) department. METHODS A postal questionnaire was used. The questionnaire addressed issues of patient treatment, communications between hospital and GPs, and the GPs' perceptions of patient satisfaction. Questions required graded responses. Response rate was 57% (91 of 160 ...

The qualified specialist in internal medicine must maintain his knowledge at the level he reached when he specialized. This may be done by reading medical journals as well as regular attendance at his local hospital. Hence non-university hospitals have an important part to play in the continuing education of doctors, particularly since nowadays their facilities match the high standard of the do...

Purpose. To describe healthcare consumption and costs prior to, during, and after multidisciplinary rehabilitation due to arthritis. Methods. 306 patients (age 18-75 years) with arthritis scheduled for multidisciplinary rehabilitation care in 9 rehabilitation centres and 4 rheumatology hospital departments were included and followed for 6 months. Costs were estimated in Euros (€) for the total ...

Aim: The purpose of this study is to identify the level of job satisfaction among hospital pharmacists in Romania in relation to environmental, socio-demographic, and individual factors. Material and Methods: Seventy-eight hospital pharmacists were included in the research. The Job Satisfaction Scale was used to measure the level of satisfaction with their current jobs, and the TAS-20 was used ...

Since hospital dental departments currently are regulated by the same quality assurance guidelines as other hospital departments, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations now requires that dental departments review and evaluate the quality of care they deliver. Criteria mapping is an audit method that builds logic and decision making into this review process. This metho...

Male infertility is a devastating problem that affects many couples worldwide. However, the molecular mechanisms and causes of idiopathic male infertility remain unclear. Circulating cell-free nucleic acids have an important role in human physiology and emerging evidence suggests that they play a role in male infertility. This review summarizes recent results on cell-free and intracellular nucl...

About infertility Infertility is the inability of a couple to get pregnant despite having regular unprotected sex. A couple is regarded as infertile if, after regular sexual intercourse, they have not conceived in two years. It is estimated that one in seven UK couples has difficulty conceiving (HFEA, 2006). Identifiable causes of infertility include: ovulatory disorders in 27% of couples; tuba...

The clinical definition of male infertility is the presence of abnormal semen parameters in the male partner of a couple who have been unable to conceive after 1 year of unprotected intercourse (Dohle 2010). The World Health Organization defines male factor infertility as the presence of one or more abnormalities in the semen analysis, or the presence of inadequate sexual or ejaculatory functio...

BACKGROUND Global, regional, and national estimates of prevalence of and tends in infertility are needed to target prevention and treatment efforts. By applying a consistent algorithm to demographic and reproductive surveys available from developed and developing countries, we estimate infertility prevalence and trends, 1990 to 2010, by country and region. METHODS AND FINDINGS We accessed and...