The UK's MRSA rates have been declining since 2006 — and this year could be 50% lower than in 2004. This increasing control over dangerous pathogens has not been achieved without considerable hospital staff efforts, relentless public and government pressures on them, and in-house malcontent about the out-sourcing of cleaning work. Given the cost of nosocomial infections to patients, the NHS…
Since 1988, all general hospitals are legally required to collect quarterly data for a Nursing Minimum Data Set (NMDS). The NMDS was revised from 23 to 78 items in 1997.
The remote monitoring of the operating status of automatic bedpan washers has become possible with the launch of the Thermologger, made by Meiko.
As nosocomial, or healthcare-related infections (HAIs), continue to escalate in the US, and protocols to manage this problem remain complex and confusing, surveillance healthcare IT systems offer hope to gain control of the situation. These offer the potential for data to be uniformly collected, quantified, and assessed. How rapidly they will be implemented enough is unknown.
Endoscopic procedures, which are well established in the diagnosis and therapy of gastrointestinal diseases, not only carry procedural risks but also the risk of endoscopy associated infections.
Marie-Luise Müller is President of Deutscher Pflegerat e.V. (German Care e.V) Council, and Chair of its Congress, which was held alongside the Capital Congress on Medicine and Health 2008 in Berlin this June. During our interview, we asked her whether there is too little German medical and political recognition of nursing as a health profession in its own right.
When asked to write a brief note on why I found it important to attend the AACC Annual Meeting, particularly from the European perspective, my mind returned to the first time I attended an AACC meeting.
In the 30 years since the overthrow of its last Shah (1979) Iranian radiologists have been welcome speakers and research presenters at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR).
Report: Mark Nicholls
Olga Ostrovskaya reports on the first St Petersburg medical forum Private medicine in Russia: Problems and ways of evolution, which took place in June. Organised by various medical associations, the main goal was to exchange experiences in private medicine and shape proposals to create a productive state policy in this sphere
People here have reached the end of their lives.
Last August, when the South African hospital group Medi-Clinic Corporation acquired Hirslanden, Switzerland's biggest private hospital group, the company not only took its first step into Europe, but progressed its strategy for the geographical expansion of its core business — acute medicine 'in conjunction with superior nursing care'.
Medical services About 90% of hospital income is generated in the 35 weekly working hours of regular day shifts. However, due to new work time regulations fewer and fewer physicians are available for these productive shifts and much of the work time is spent in the 133 working hours of the 'unproductive' night shifts.
Although incremental improvements in cancer care were unveiled at the 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology held in Chicago, USA, — the world's largest gathering of cancer specialists, our correspondent Ian Mason writes that, even as new study results were being reported, their cost implications for stretched healthcare budgets were questioned.
The Swiss hospital system is facing a radical change. Billing by Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) is about to be introduced. European Hospital's correspondent in Switzerland, Dr André Weissen,* approached Dr Carlo Conti, President of SwissDRG AG to discuss some of the controversial issues involved in the switch to DRGs
The next pandemia will come - rather sooner than later. The respiratory protection of frontline staff is a major part of healthcare facilities' preparation. To assist hospitals, ECRI Institute and the International Association of Healthcare Safety and Security present the web conference "Respiratory Protection: Preparing for Pandemic Flu" on July 17, 2008.
It was a tough project but in the end the ministers of health of 53 countries - the WHO European Region - agreed on a groundbreaking paper on healthcare, committing themselves to concrete actions to fight the fact that many people have no easy and affordable access to quality healthcare. They will strengthen a system that will allow both their own people and the international community to hold…
The development of private medicine in Russia has reached a new level, according to Sergej Anoufriev, CEO of the St Petersburg Association of Clinics (set up by 13 private clinics two years ago). Private clinics have become a real part of the Russian healthcare system and people increasingly choose private medical services. However, the state and private organisations solve the same problems…
Cars, cranes, IT - leasing has become a very popular method of financing. And it is about to conquer the ICUs, ORs and imaging departments of hospitals and clinics. According to the association of German leasing companies (Bundesverband Deutscher Leasing-Unternehmen e.V.), in 2005 the leasing volume for medical technology increased by 20 percent compared to the prior year.
The hospital sector has recently been facing increased competition law scrutiny, in particular in Germany. During the last few years the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) has made it clear on a number of occasions that mergers between hospitals (private as well as public-law hospitals) are just as much subject to competition law provisions as any other merger cases.
Although much has been done in the last three or four months, iSoft needs to become a stronger global organisation, Gary Cohen emphasised.
This June, the 10,000th Alphamaquet surgical table made by Maquet GmbH of Rastatt, Germany, will be delivered to the department of thoracic surgery at Barmherzigen Brüder Hospital, Regensburg, along with other Maquet medical technology on order.
The manufacture of reusable instruments needs stringent care to meet constantly increasing processing regulations and also ensure survival in repeated heavy use.
Among the major changes to operating theatres (OT) in recent years is the introduction of information technology (IT) equipment.