HomeHospital Medicine
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...
Significant risks to the use of short-term PICC
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...
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...
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...
When surgical infection control practices work best
Infection control practices that focus on perioperative patient skin and wound hygiene, as well as transparent display of data, not operating room attire policies,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
Catheter safeguards slash infections and hospital costs
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...
Up to 50% of ICU stays may be unnecessary
Intensive Care Units (ICUs), which provide the most expensive and invasive forms of care in a hospital setting, are being used too often for...
Enhanced recovery programme benefits
Patients undergoing colorectal operations who participated in an enhanced recovery programme left the hospital sooner and had significantly lower hospital costs.
New guidelines on urinary catheter use
A new guide gives doctors and nurses information to help decide which hospital patients may benefit from a urinary catheter – and which ones don’t.
Hospital gastroenteritis measures lacking
Noroviruses, responsible for over 50% of global gastroenteritis cases, can spread by air up to several metres from an infected person according to a Université Laval study.
Anti-infection key steps not taken
Nearly half of US hospitals aren't taking key steps to prevent Clostridium difficile infections that kills nearly 30,000 people annually and sickens hundreds of thousands more – despite strong evidence that such steps work.
Hand washing reminder gets cold shoulder
Most patients are willing to remind health care workers to wash their hands while in the hospital, suggests a South Korea study, but doctors and nurses don't like the idea.
Patient satisfaction unaffected by remodelling
Contrary to previous studies, Johns Hopkins researchers found that patients’ satisfaction scores only modestly improved based on the newly remodelled design of a hospital.