Hospital Medicine
Palliative care associated with shorter hospital stays and lower costs
Palliative care – which better aligns medical treatments with patients' goals and wishes, aggressively treats distressing symptoms, and improves care coordination – is associated with shorter hospital stays and lower costs, and shows its...
Significant risks to the use of short-term PICC
March 7th, 2018 A US study finds that one in every four times a PICC is inserted to intravenuously deliver medicine or nutrition, the patient didn't need it long enough to justify the risks that it can also pose. Many hospital patients get medicine or nutrition...Midwives mean fewer obstetric procedures
A US hospital study found that midwife-attended births have lower use of caesareans and episiotomies among low-risk women, raising the possibility of improving value in maternity care through greater access to midwifery care. In a hospital-level...Cutting weekend allied health services has little effect on patients' outcomes
Removing weekend allied health services - including physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, dietetics, and social work - from the surgical wards of hospitals had little effect on patients’ outcomes, according to a study by Terry...
When surgical infection control practices work best
October 4th, 2017 Infection control practices that focus on perioperative patient skin and wound hygiene, as well as transparent display of data, not operating room attire policies, correlated with surgical site infection rates, a US hospital study found. While...Reducing US hospital readmission not increasing death rates
Reducing US hospital readmission rates for three key medical conditions occurred without causing an increase in death rates, according to a Yale University-led study. US hospitals have made significant reductions in rates of readmission 30 days...Infection spreads despite practising perfect hand hygiene
Even if hospital workers practise theoretically perfect hand hygiene, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can still spread among babies in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The research was led by a Drexel University...Combination alert reducing missed diagnosis of severe sepsis
An electronic sepsis alert using a combination of vital signs, risk factors and physician judgment to identify children in a paediatric emergency department with severe sepsis reduced missed diagnoses by 76%. "Sepsis is a killer and notoriously...Better understanding microbial interactions in hospitals
The 12-month Hospital Microbiome Project – with its focus on the flow of microbes between patients, staff and surfaces – should help hospitals worldwide better understand how to encourage beneficial microbial interactions and decrease...Pre-surgery coaching cuts hospital stay, costs
A US study found that advance basic fitness and wellness coaching could reduce a surgical patient's average hospital stay two days, when compared to a control group, and cut medical costs by 30%. Just as an athlete might work to build up stamina...ICU may not be better for COPD, heart failure and heart attack
Stay in the intensive care unit may not give patients a better chance of surviving chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart failure or even a heart attack, compared with care in another type of hospital unit, Unless a patient is clearly...Hospital-led interventions slash caesarean delivery rates
A US study found that hospital-led interventions over a seven-year period were associated with a significant reduction in the caesarean delivery rate. Nearly one in three babies born in the US is delivered via caesarean section, or C-section....Sepsis accounts for highest number of hospitalisation re-admissions
Sepsis hospitalisations account for a higher proportion of unplanned 30-day re-admissions than hospitalisations for heart attack, heart failure, COPD, and pneumonia in the US, according to a study being released to coincide with its presentation at...
Catheter safeguards slash infections and hospital costs
January 18th, 2017 Interventions related to central venous catheters were, on average, associated with 57% fewer bloodstream infections and substantial savings to hospitals, found a multi-centre analysis. US hospitals are reducing bloodstream infections related to...
Up to 50% of ICU stays may be unnecessary
January 11th, 2017 Intensive Care Units (ICUs), which provide the most expensive and invasive forms of care in a hospital setting, are being used too often for patients who don't need that level of care, according to a study by LA BioMed and University of...