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Staff shortages and lack of space at Prince Mshiyeni Hospital in Umlazi, south of Durban, was blamed for an outbreak of Klebsiella that has claimed the lives of five babies. Contaminated intravenous equipment and poor infection control measures were found to be the source of an outbreak of Klebsiella Pneumoniae, which killed twenty-one babies in another KwaZulu-Natal hospital. "Several flaws were identified" with infection control methods, according to the report that was released and compiled by medical microbiologist Professor Willem Sturm of the Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine in Durban. Initial investigations at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital north of Durban, found Klebsiella Pneumoniae on the hands of 10% of staff. Interviews revealed that the nursery was usually overcrowded, under-equipped and under-staffed, which worked against adherence to infection control. Early in the investigation at this hospital, a link was found to the babies' intravenous treatment and after other possibilities were ruled out, medication information for seventeen of the babies showed that they had received regular intravenous injections. The spread was attributed to multiple-use of units of the medication to save costs, inadequate hand washing practices and inappropriate hand wash facilities. Recommendations included sealing off the nursery with strict hygiene controls and abandoning the practice of multiple uses of units of intravenous preparations. "Such preparations should be used only once. Multiple-use for one patient should also not be done" Furthermore, long sleeves on gowns, white coats and uniforms, or personal wear should be forbidden, and rings and watches should not be worn on hands and wrists as these interfere with hand washing. Such recommendations, though pertinent, do not disguise the seriousness of this situation in our hospitals. / A case study submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Public Administration.

Many elderly patients remain in acute care hospitals while they await transfer to Long Term Care (LTC) facilities. Complex problems, common for this special group of patients, place them at risk for delayed discharge. Discharge planning, for these patients, has become an increasingly critical activity for social workers. / This study examined factors that predict the risks for inappropriate hospitalization for 244 patients waiting for LTC in 1999, and it explored the LTC application process to identify barriers to delayed discharges. / It was found that 63% of the hospitalization of these patients was inappropriate. System related factors, such as the timing of the LTC application, were identified as predictors. Timeline investigations revealed areas for improvement in the discharge process and were discussed with a view to social work implementation, for example, the introduction of a high-risk screening protocol.

Typescript. / Thesis (D.P.H.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1984. / Bibliography: leaves [171]-177. / Photocopy. / xi, 177 leaves bound ill. 29 cm

The service sector of many developing countries is playing an increasingly significant role in terms of its contribution to both revenue and labour employment. As for Thailand, it contributed to approximately 53 per cent of GDP in 2003 and is growing every year. The performance of service firms is, therefore, of much interest to both executives and academics. While most empirical research in service firms in Thailand has focused mostly on service quality or customer satisfaction, other aspects of the important factors for the firms' success such as the relationships of customer satisfaction/loyalty and employee satisfaction/loyalty to the firm, performance have not received adequate academic attention. / Most of the research work on the relationships between key stakeholders of service firms has been conducted in developed countries, particularly the USA and the UK. The three key stakeholders of firms normally include customers, employees, and shareholders. Quite surprisingly, relatively little empirical research to study the links between those stakeholders has been carried out in Asia and Thailand in particular. This research is probably the first academic attempt in Thailand to address this gap by empirically examining the three constructs, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and firm preference that have been found in past research to have positive associations. The private hospitals which are located in Bangkok and listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) were the sample population. Four hospitals agreed to take part in this study. / This study used secondary data that were already available from the four hospitals. The data include patient satisfaction surveys they regularly conduct and financial performance measures, such as revenue, profit, and return on assets, which are publicly available in their annual reports and the SET's online database. The data were processed and examined using correlation analysis method. The three variables studied were processed and examined using correlation analysis method. The three variables studied were patient satisfaction, patient loyalty, and hospital performance. The data on patient surveys and other relevant data were given with written consent from the four hospitals. The data on patient satisfaction and loyalty were derived from scores in the patient surveys. As for the hospital performance measures, they were derived from the financial data in the annual reports from the four-year period of 2001-2004. The data of the four hospitals was studied by two methods. The first method was processing all data of the four hospitals as a whole and then analysing them in one aggregate. A major limitation of this study is that the data of the four hospitals on patient loyalty was not complete. / Based on correlation analyses, the results from both methods reveal that some of the hypotheses were supported. Specifically, the results from the first method show that patient satisfaction was positively associated with the two measures of patient loyalty, referrals and repeat visits. However, significant relationships between patient satisfaction and hospital performance and between patient loyalty and hospital performance were not found. As for the second method, the results reveal that there were some positive relationships between variables of three hospitals. Only the results of one hospital show no significant associations between all the three variables. The findings were analysed in detail and implications for researchers and practitioners were also given. Based on the results of this exploratory research, more empirical studies with complete data in the private hospital market are warranted to be able to obtain more conclusive results. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2006.

Hospital care is changing, - dominated by the dollar and technology and the patient is taking second place. Nursing, traditionally known as being a caring profession, is not exempt from the changes and the traditional entrance interview to find caring students has been replaced by a computerised system. Graduates from university programs are being branded as non-caring. This research sought to find practical ways in which nurses showed caring to patients, and to develop a framework which could be used to teach and cultivate caring attributes in undergraduate students. A broad sweep of the past was taken to show how, dominated by disease and the necessity to take care of the suffering and infirm, nursing has been inextricably linked to the inability of science to cure. The discussion on the impact of the Therapeutic Revolution and a health care system, dominated by the dollar, places nursing and caring in perspective. Some philosophical, religious and psychological notions of caring were briefly explored. A participative paradigm underpins this research which uses a collaborative inquiry cyclical and reflective process of three phases. In Phase I a group of Graduate Registered Nurses reflected on the enacted/strategies/skills that were used to show caring to patients. Six key enactments were elicited from the total of 64 reflections that were submitted. Phase II constructed a framework that could be used to teach caring, which was then critiqued by an expert group of educators. Phase III returned to Phases I and II and used a process of reflection-on-reflection and a new emergent meaning of caring in nursing ensued. As a result of this reflection-on-reflection, a reconfiguration of the framework resulted in the development of the Care Connections model.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Western Sydney, Nepean, 1996. / Bibliography: leaves 283-313.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Victoria University (Melbourne, Vic.), 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.