An ED-focused clinical redesign project was associated with a 17% improvement in NEAT performance with no evidence of an increase in clinical deterioration on inpatient wards and evidence for an improvement in hospital mortality.
BackgroundThe comparative impact of chronic viral monoinfection versus coinfection on inpatient outcomes and health care utilization is relatively unknown. This study examined trends, inpatient utilization, and hospital outcomes for patients with HIV, HCV, or HIV/HCV coinfection.MethodsData were from the 1996–2010 National Hospital Discharge Surveys. Hospitalizations with primary ICD-9-CM codes for HIV or HCV were included for HIV and HCV monoinfection, respectfully. Coinfection included both HIV and HCV codes. Demographic characteristics, select comorbidities, procedural interventions, average hospital length of stay (LOS), and discharge status were compared by infection status (HIV, HCV, HIV/HCV). Annual disease estimates and survey weights were used to generate hospitalization rates.Results~6.6 million hospitalizations occurred in patients with HIV (39%), HCV (56%), or HIV/HCV (5%). The hospitalization rate (hospitalizations per 100 persons with infection) decreased in the HIV group (29.8 in 1996; 5.3 in 2010), decreased in the HIV/HCV group (2.0 in 1996; 1.5 in 2010), yet increased in the HCV group (0.2 in 1996; 0.9 in 2010). Median LOS from 1996 to 2010 (days, interquartile range) decreased in all groups: HIV, 6 (3–10) to 4 (3–8); HCV, 5 (3–9) to 4 (2–6); HIV/HCV, 6 (4–11) to 4 (2–7). Age-adjusted mortality rates decreased for all three groups. The rate of decline was least pronounced for those with HCV monoinfection.ConclusionHospitalizations have declined more rapidly for patients with HIV infection (including HIV/HCV coinfection) than for patients with HCV infection. This growing disparity between HIV and HCV underscores the need to allocate more resources to HCV care in hopes that similar large-scale improvements can also be accomplished for patients with HCV.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2334-14-536) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Purpose The objectives of the study were to examine: (a) the types of questions that African American patients have about glaucoma for their providers and (b) how patients’ socio-demographic characteristics are associated with where and from whom they would like to learn about glaucoma and glaucoma medications. Methods Forty-nine Adult African American patients with glaucoma were recruited at a private ophthalmology clinic where they completed a questionnaire for this cross-sectional study. Results African American patients had a mean of 3.9 questions for their ophthalmologists; the questions that patients checked as having most often were “What is my prognosis with glaucoma?” (49%) and “What is my intraocular pressure?” (45%). Seventy-six percent of patients preferred that an educational program about glaucoma be offered at the doctor's office and 39% preferred it be offered at a community or senior citizen center. Ninety percent said that the education program should be offered by doctors. Patients under the age of seventy were significantly more likely to want a program on the Internet than patients age seventy and over (Pearson chi-square=4.7, p=0.03). If an educational program was developed patients reported being most interested in the following topics, glaucoma medications (84%), what is glaucoma and what does it mean to have it (83%). Conclusions African American patients have many questions about glaucoma for their eye care providers. African American patients would prefer glaucoma educational programs be offered at their provider's office. Our findings could be used to develop educational programs for African American patients with glaucoma.
We report hypersexuality in three people with schizophrenia after starting risperidone, with evidence suggesting a possible link between risperidone and the hypersexuality. Mrs X, 71 years old, married once and widowed for 20 years, with no known history of hypersexuality, was started on risperidone 25 mg intramuscular (IM) injection three times weekly. Two months later, she complained of 'having to' masturbate two to three times daily without being able to orgasm, lactating and losing 'too much fluids' vaginally. She became fixated on an imagined romantic relationship, took off her old wedding ring and attempted to hire a tourist boat for a wedding reception she planned for herself. Risperidone was stopped after 6 months and switched to pipotiazine 25 mg IM injection, three times weekly, after a washout period of 5 days. Features of hypersexuality waned and resolved 10 days later, with no recurrence. A 53-year-old man, Mr Y, took clozapine for 14 years before it was stopped due to neutropenia. He was started on oral risperidone 2 mg twice daily and developed thoughts fixated on masturbation, erections and needing a sexual partner. Risperidone was stopped and olanzapine initiated, with no disclosed sexual content in his thoughts from the next day. Hypersexual thoughts recurred on overnight leave. During the second overnight leave, he behaved indecently towards two young women in a park and was charged with indecent assault. A 23-year-old man, Mr Z, was re-titrated on risperidone after a period of non-adherence. From the day after oral risperidone was titrated up to 5 mg daily, when risperidone 50 mg IM injection was also administered, ten episodes of hypersexual behaviour were documented in a period of 10 days, including sexually disinhibited speech, propositioning and exhibitionism. Risperidone was tapered and stopped, and Mr Z was started on flupentixol 20 mg IM injection. There were no further episodes of hypersexual behaviour other than one episode of disinhibited speech when the risperidone was 3 mg daily. Mr Z was later readmitted and maintained on flupentixol 20 mg IM injection. No hypersexual behaviour occurred during this admission. None of these people were hypomanic. Bipolar disorder was excluded. Prolactin levels on risperidone were 2737 IU/l for Mrs X, and 468 IU/l for Mr Y. A review of the literature showed similar case reports. 1,2 Antagonism of 5-HT 2A receptors by risperidone, which increases dopamine release in the prefrontal cortex, and antagonism of alpha-2 adrenergic receptors, which disinhibits noradrenergic neurons and plays a role in genital stimulation, 3,4 could explain this effect. A similar mechanism of alpha-2 adrenergic blockade has been postulated for yohimbine. The expression of these receptors in individuals may affect vulnerability. Conventional
Ongoing injection drug use contributes to the HIV and HCV epidemics in people who inject drugs. In many places, pharmacies are the primary source of sterile syringes for people who inject drugs; thus, pharmacies provide a viable public health service that reduces blood-borne disease transmission. Replacing the supply of high dead space syringes with low dead space syringes could have far-reaching benefits that include further prevention of disease transmission in people who inject drugs and reductions in dosing inaccuracies, medication errors, and medication waste in patients who use syringes. We explored using pharmacies in a structural intervention to increase the uptake of low dead space syringes as part of a comprehensive strategy to reverse these epidemics.
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