To study if antibiotic treatment of outpatients had triggered Clostridium difficile infections (CDI), prescription numbers were compared with CDI-affected patient numbers. A strong correlation was observed for ciprofloxacin (R=0.917), suggesting that increased use of ciprofloxacin by outpatients contributed to increased numbers of CDI. These findings deserve further investigation as they may ha...

The prevalence and natural history of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in asymptomatic patients with ascites secondary to cirrhosis is unknown. From a prospectively recorded database, we reviewed the clinical and laboratory features of all outpatients with cirrhotic ascites undergoing paracentesis between July 1994 and December 2000. The prevalence of spontaneous bacterial peritonitis in the p...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to determine feasibility, safety, and cost savings of outpatient thyroid and parathyroid surgery. METHODS Consecutive unselected patients undergoing thyroid and parathyroid operations by two surgeons with a special interest in endocrine surgery were studied prospectively. RESULTS One-hundred patients underwent operation, 61 as outpatients and 39 as i...

This study was designed to assess the level of psychological distress in a heterogeneous group of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and compare them with the general population and psychiatric outpatients. A total of 118 patients with COPD, a random sample of 500 subjects from the general population and 500 psychiatric outpatients participated in this study. The Dutch ...

OBJECTIVES We conducted a cross-sectional study to evaluate the socioeconomic systems supporting outpatients with Parkinson's disease (PD) in Japan. METHODS The study was performed in 2013 at two private hospitals and one clinic in Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. A survey was conducted with 248 consecutive PD patients, and the data from 237 PD outpatients were analyzed after excluding 11 patients...

The number of geropsychiatric outpatients is on an increase in North India.Such patients visit many clinics for treatment of their problems. Not much research has been done in this part of the country in assessing the clinical profiles of such patients. As such the present study was undertaken to assess the sociodemographic characteristics and the pattern of psychiatric and physical disorders i...

Efficient patient-centred quality improvement requires an understanding of the system-wide areas of dissatisfaction along with evidence to identify the programs which can be strategically targeted according to specific patient characteristics and preferences. This cross-sectional study reports the proportion of chronic disease outpatients selecting 23 patient-centred improvement initiatives. Us...

The purpose of our study was to determine if a previously published clinical decision rule designed to estimate the probability of proximal deep vein thrombosis in outpatients is valid when applied exclusively to outpatients with musculoskeletal disorders. We also sought to determine whether probability estimates differed for patients with or without trauma, fracture, or recent orthopaedic surg...

Background; Measuring patients’ satisfaction shows the efficacy of care providers to meet patients' expectations and supplies the valuable data for health policy makers. This study was conducted to assess patients’ satisfaction from hospital services and its relationship with responsiveness.Methods; This cross-sectional study was carried out at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences in 2013 -201...

BACKGROUND The high prevalence of risky irrational drug use behaviors mean that outpatients face high risks of drug resistance and even death. This study represents the first application of the Information-Motivation-Behavioral Skills (IMB) model on rational drug use behavior among second-level hospital outpatients from three prefecture-level cities in Anhui, China. Using the IMB model, our stu...