BACKGROUND: Operating theatres in any hospital consume a large amount of resources. A well-functioning theatre complex is an important and essential component of a well functioning hospital. . The analysis is based on the socio-economic profile of patients and the time spent in theatre. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional study design was used involving a retrospective record review over a one year period (April 2009 to March 2010) was conducted. The variables for the study included, type of operations and their indications, profiles of patients and turn-around time in the theatre. In addition, a comparison between those who had elective and emergency surgery was done with regard to some variables such as profile of patients and turn-around time. The project was initiated after obtaining approval from the head of the department of the North West Provincial Department of Health and University of the Witwatersrand Human Research Ethics Committee (Medical). Confidentiality and anonymity were maintained all the time during collection, capturing, and reporting of the information RESULT: A total of 447 cases were performed during this period including 5.6% (25) elective cases and 94.4% (422) emergency cases. The majority of the operations performed at this Hospital included caesarean section and evacuation of uterus. In addition to that there were other procedures such as laparotomy, labial incision, perineorrhaphy, and dilatation and curettage. The type of procedures (elective or emergency) was significantly associated with ethnicity, employment and medical aid status and referral source of the subjects. The majority of the caesarean sections were performed due to maternal indications. More elective caesarean sections were performed for maternal indications (79%) than fetal indications (21%). There was one maternal complication (ruptured uterus) but no maternal mortality during this period. Whereas all the babies were alive after elective CS, there were seven stillbirths after emergency CS. An average of 110 minutes were spent by patients in theatre and at least 33% of the time was spend on the actual operation although there is no significant difference between elective and emergency patients with regard to time spent in the operating room (p = 0.46). Emergency patients took more time (25 minutes) before they were wheeled to theatre which is an area for improvement. The operating theatre was utilised only 5.9% of available time. This suggests that is opportunity to utilise the operating theatre for other cases. CONCLUSION: This is first formal study performed at a district hospital operating theatre in the North West Province. This study assisted in development of understanding of the function of the operating theatre at the General de la Rey Hospital. The findings of this would assist the hospital management to improve its function such as reduction of latent time for emergency patients and conducting more elective procedures.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1975.

Thesis (M.H.A.)--University of Michigan, 1975.

Thesis (M. Nursing (Advanced Practice))--University of South Australia, 1995.

published_or_final_version / Computer Science / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

No description available.

Currently, new algorithms are being incorporated into operating systems to deal with a host of new requirements from multimedia applications. These new algorithms deal with soft real-time scheduling, different memory models, and changes to buffer caching and network protocols. However, old design techniques such as structured programming, global variables and implied dependencies are impeding this development and proof of correctness. Many current operating system research groups are developing extensible systems, where new code can be placed into the system and even kernel layers. A primary difficulty in these efforts is how to avoid adversely affecting reliability and traditional measures of performance. Techniques from the object orientation paradigm are being incorporated to better manage these issues because they have shown promise in improving modularity, information hiding, and reusability. In some cases, these techniques are even being used to build fresh operating systems from the ground up with the goal of easier extensibility and adaptability in the future. The Apertos operating system introduced and implemented many concepts originally alien to operating system research but exhibited unacceptable performance for multimedia applications. This dissertation introduces Chameleon, a new object-oriented operating system that shares the same philosophical approach as Apertos, leveraging meta designs and concepts to deal with the diverse requirements of today’s and future multimedia applications. However, Chameleon takes a new and original approach to design and implementation to achieve a high degree of adaptability and retain the performance of a micro-kemel. In Chameleon, the object-oriented paradigm serves as the basis for newly introduced concepts such as AbstractCPU, brokers, and the broker interface hierarchy. Together, AbstractCPU, brokers, and related software engineering techniques such as dynamic class binding serve as a basis for all system management, communication, and for an event-driven model where new events can be defined and dynamically introduced to a running system. The meta design clearly defines a hierarchy of “operating environments” that can be optimized for a particular type of application. As such, hierarchical resource management plays an important role in Chameleon. A minimal set of primitives that is appropriate for hierarchical memory management is defined atop a single address space memory model. Similarly, hierarchical CPU scheduling is employed, as different applications will exhibit different scheduling requirements. Different schedulers may then co-exist on the same CPU. Communication in a hierarchically structured operating system is also detailed. The implementation of the Chameleon structuring concept is presented and analyzed. Standard performance measures are used to compare Chameleon to related research and commercial operating systems. Costs of individual operations are also presented to outline the overheads and gains associated with the Chameleon model. / Graduate

No description available.

Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Health Sciences, 2013. / BACKGROUND – District hospitals provides level of care services that are part of the basic service package for district hospitals. Services applicable to district hospitals’ operating theatres include performance of elective and emergency surgical procedures. A study was conducted at Sekororo district hospital to evaluate the functioning of the operating theatre system. AIM: To describe the profile of patients, theatre down time and theatre throughput efficiencies at the district hospital for the period 1 April 2009 – 31 March 2011. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross sectional study based on a retrospective record review. The study setting was Sekororo District Hospital Operating Theatre. The population included records of all operations performed in the theatre during the study period. Theatre utilization was calculated as well as patient throughput to assess the internal operational efficiencies. The throughput of elective and emergency cases were compared. RESULTS: A total of 702 cases were performed during the study period. The majority of cases performed in the operating theatre were maternity cases (caesarean sections). Maternity cases accounted for 602 cases. The most common indication for caesarean sections (CS) is Cephalo-pelvic Disproportion (CPD) (49.2%). For the maternity cases, the majority were emergency cases (84.33%), and 15.67% elective cases. Theatre utilization for this period was 3% (3.6% for 2009/10 and 3.2% for 2010/11). There was a statistically significant difference (p<0.01) between the average throughput for emergency and elective cases – 25 minutes for emergency cases (confidence interval 20-35 minutes) versus 62.5 minutes for elective cases (confidence interval 38.75 – 78.75 minutes). CONCLUSION: The theatre utilization rate is extremely low for this study period. Patient throughput is much more efficient for emergency cases. Further studies are required to determine resource allocation to the operating theatre that resulted in the low theatre utilization.