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Biomedical subjects

A Gatherer

Publications and source records attributed to A Gatherer.

8 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1988

Use of hospital beds: a cohort study of admissions to a provincial teaching hospital.

An instrument was developed to study the use of hospital beds and discharge arrangements of a cohort of 847 admissions to the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, for a three week period during February-March 1986. For only 38% of bed days were patients considered to have medical, nursing, or life support reasons for requiring a provincial teaching hospital bed. The requirements for a bed in the hospital decreased with the patient's age and length of stay in hospital. For only a tenth of patients was the general practitioner concerned in discussions with hospital staff about the patient's discharge and less than one third of patients had been given more than 24 hours' notice of discharge. Several features might increase the proportion of bed days that are occupied by patients with positive reasons for being in hospital. Among these are an increased frequency of ward rounds by consultants, or delegating discharge decisions by consultants to other staff; providing diagnostic related protocols for planning the length of stay in hospital; planned discharges; and providing liaison nurses to help with communication with primary care staff.

Bed Occupancy↗
PubMed1977

Peripheral outpatient clinics: use, costs, and benefits.

A census was taken of outpatient bookings at all hospitals and health centres in Oxfordshire for the main medical and surgical specialities. Nine per cent of all bookings were to peripheral clinics (that is, those outsie the two main medical centres at Oxford and Banbury). About half of all bookings in the area were made to clinics within three of four miles of the patients' homes. The work load at peripheral clinics was mainly local: 75% of all patients at these clinics lived in the town or parishes adjacent to the town where the clinic was held. Peripheral clinics were associated with a lower work load at central clinics, but a higher overall work load from the town in which they were sited.

Adolescent↗