RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: One of the common problems faced by patients in any government hospital is the fact that they do not get the results of the laboratory investigation ordered on them at the proper time. While the issues of quality control in laboratory have been adequately addressed by most of the hospital laboratories, the practice of issuing results to the patient in most hospitals is manual and this adds the element of human errors involved in retrieval and issue of the results to them. Hence an attempt was made to send the laboratory results as short message service (SMS) to the patients. METHODS: The project was started for haematology and biochemistry reports as they comprised most of the bulk of investigation ordered on patients. In-house modules were developed using MS Access for the data-entry of the haematology and biochemistry results. The results were then mapped to the patients' name and telephone. Services of an SMS gateway firm were used to then send the results to the patient in the form of SMS. RESULTS: On an average 150 haematology and 250 biochemistry results are being sent daily to different patients. The cost of sending one SMS is approximately Rs. 0.10. This has resulted in a significant improvement of clientele satisfaction. CONCLUSION: Sending laboratory reports as SMS to patients is an easy, efficient and economical way to reach out to the clientele and improve their satisfaction. The method can easily be duplicated in other hospitals also.
RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Burkholderia cepacia is an aerobic, motile, opportunistic Gram negative bacillus that can survive in certain disinfectants. This is a report of the emerging infection with the bacteria B. cepacia in our hospital. The awareness of this emerging bacterium is important, as it is known to cause nosocomial infection in hospitals, especially in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) setting. setting. B. cepacia, although known to be multidrug resistant, shows sensitivity to some antibiotics that can be used to treat infection caused by it. METHODS: The cases of infection and antimicrobial susceptibility of nosocomial B. cepacia pattern have been analyzed. RESULTS: A total of 38 cases with B. cepacia infection were isolated. Two of these cases showed the organism in two samples, totalling the sample collection to 40. The most frequent isolation of B. cepacia was from blood 21/40 (52.5%) and pus 9/40 (22.5%). B. cepacia infections were most commonly observed in the Intensive Care Unit (52.6%). Infections were more common in men than women with a mortality rate of 42%. The most sensitive antimicrobial agents were found to be Colistin (93%) and Cotrimoxazole (71%). CONCLUSION: There have been 38 cases of the emerging nosocomial B. cepacia infection in our hospital in the period from September 2012 to February 2014. There was no case reported in the records before September 2012. Infections caused by B. cepacia should be made aware of and taken seriously because of its high transmissibility, intrinsic resistance to antibiotics, high mortality and most importantly its sensitivity to simple antibiotics such as Cotrimoxazole.
RESUMEN
50 cases of isolated meniscal injuries of the knee were evaluated and managed arthroscopically. 56% of the cases were in 25-35 year age group. In 80% of the cases military training and contact sports was the mode of injury. Maximum (42%) patients reported late (> 2 years) after the injury. On presentation, they had an average Lysholm knee score of 53.76. Medial meniscal lesion was seen in 74%. Commonest pattern of tear encountered was a longitudinal tear (40%). Depending on pattern and extent of lesion, partial meniscectomy (60%), subtotal meniscectomy (14%) and total meniscectomy (26%) were performed. Patients were followed up at six months and one year. The average Lysholm score at 6 months was 83.3 and at one year 79.5. At one year, the patient satisfaction level was 82% and patients who underwent partial meniscectomy had the best results.