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Hospital Medicine
Fewer registered nurses linked to increased mortality risk in wards
Admission to a hospital ward with below average numbers of fully trained (registered) nurses to care for patients is linked to a 3% rise...
C. difficile on bed sheets may survive hospital laundering
Washing contaminated hospital bedsheets in a commercial washing machine with industrial detergent at high disinfecting temperatures failed to remove all traces of Clostridium difficile...
Diagnosis and treatment guidelines for C.difficile in new-borns
New-borns require special diagnosis and treatment considerations for the infectious diarrhoea Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) infection, according to a new evidence-based white paper. The...
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...
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.
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.
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.