Irish journal of medical science
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Award incentives encourage higher standards of personal performance, which closely reflects the quality of patient care. We report the development, implementation, and success of our internal medicine department awards program. ⋯ In summary, we feel that this transparent, objective, and peer-nominated awards program could serve as an incentivized model for healthcare providers to elevate the standards of personal performance, which in turn will benefit the advancement of patient care.
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As the Irish population ages, the management of chronic conditions in primary care is emerging as a challenge. The presence of co-morbid depression is common among such patients and may affect their response to treatment. ⋯ Patients with type 2 DM are more likely to suffer from severe depression than those without. Depression itself is not an independent predictor of diabetes control. However, it may be that the increased rates of depression observed in patients with type 2 DM are at least partially attributable to the burden of additional illnesses seen in these patients.
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Urology cover is commonly available out-of-hours in most teaching hospitals. However, increased pressure to reduce hospital expenditure has forced many institutions to consider removing middle grade cover outside of normal working hours. The aim of this study was to audit the emergency urology activity in our institution over a 12-month period. ⋯ Emergency urology activity constitutes a large proportion of the workload at our institution. Restricting emergency urology cover would limit essential training opportunities for urology trainees, increases length of stay and delay treatment of urological emergencies. Urology "out of hours" cover is a cost-efficient method of service provision.
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Comparative Study
Open versus laparoscopic abdominal rectopexy: an examination of early postoperative outcomes.
Abdominal rectopexy is used to treat full thickness rectal prolapse and obstructed defecation syndrome, with good outcomes. Use of a laparoscopic approach may reduce morbidity. The current study assessed short-term operative outcomes for patients undergoing laparoscopic or open rectopexy. ⋯ Laparoscopic rectopexy has similar short-term outcomes to open rectopexy.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Preemptive dexmedetomidine to prevent propofol injection pain in children.
The incidence of propofol injection pain is high in children, but no methods have been found to suppress it completely. This study intends to evaluate the efficacy of dexmedetomidine-midazolam in preventing propofol injection pain in children. ⋯ Pretreatment with dexmedetomidine 0.6 μg/kg, then midazolam 0.06 mg/kg could suppress propofol injection pain in children.