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For as long as humans have been taking care of other humans who are sick or hurt, the rendering of solace and physical comfort has been the core from which all other types of aid have grown. But a nurse and ethicist in California says that ignoring the value of giving of solace and comfort amounts to turning away from the prime reason for the practice of medicine.
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It was about 2 a.m., Sept. 16, when Hurricane Ivan roared into Pensacola, FL, with 130-mph winds, battering the boarded-up windows of Sacred Heart Hospital, knocking out the electricity and forcing the hospital to operate on emergency generators. The next few days called for creativity and patience on the part of the staff and patients.
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Everyone who works in health care has a list of ideas for what needs to be done to improve client satisfaction, but one theme appears to be a common thread throughout: communication.
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Dial and colleagues point out that Clostridium difficile is the most common form of nosocomial infectious diarrhea in the Western world, apparently increasing in frequency, severity, and consequential health care costs (more than $1 billion in the United States annually).
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All 165 cases of malaria-related deaths in the United States reported to the National Malaria Surveillance System from 1963 to 2001 were reviewed. Two-thirds occurred in US travelers, and 92.7% of deaths were due to Plasmodium falciparum infection.
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Patients without insurance have been reported to have less satisfactory health outcomes, and this has been attributed to a number of factors including access to health care and a greater burden of comorbid conditions. In the current retrospective analysis, short-term outcomes including surgical complications and in-hospital mortality were greater for uninsured or Medicaid recipient colorectal cancer patients (aged, 40-64 years) compared with those with private insurance.
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The presence of lung metastases as the first site of relapse and a negative hormone receptor status are predictive for the occurrence of brain metastases in patients with metastatic breast cancer. A prophylactic treatment should be evaluated in these subsets of patients.
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The technique of ductal lavage was examined in women who immediately thereafter underwent mastectomy for breast cancer. A physiologic solution was injected into cannulated breast ducts and then aspirated and examined for atypical or frankly malignant cells.
