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Notes: Older people (those aged 65 years and over) are the major users of health care services, especially acute hospital beds. Since the creation of the NHS there has been concern that older people inappropriately occupy acute hospital beds when their needs would be best served by other forms of care. Many factors have been associated with delayed discharge (age, sex, multiple pathology, dependency and administrative inefficiencies). However, many of these factors are interrelated (or confounded) and few studies have taken this into account. Using data from a large study of assessment of older patients upon discharge from hospital in England, this paper examines the extent of delayed discharge, and analyses the factors associated with such delays using a conceptual model of individual and organisational factors. Specifically, this paper evaluates the relative contribution of the following factors to the delayed discharge of older people from hospital: predisposing factors (such as age), enabling factors (availability of a family carer), vulnerability factors (dependency and multiple pathology), and organisational/administrative factors (referral for services, type of team undertaking assessments). The study was a retrospective patient case note review in three hospitals in England and included four hundred and fifty-six patients aged 75 years and over admitted from their own homes, and discharged from specialist elderly care wards. Of the 456 patients in the sample, 27% had a recorded delay in their discharge from hospital of three plus days. Multivariate statistical analysis revealed that three factors independently predicted delay in discharge: absence of a family carer, entry to a nursing/residential home, and discharge assessment team staffing. Delayed discharge was not related to the hypothesised vulnerability factors (multiple dependency and multiple pathology) nor to predisposing factors (such as age or whether the older person lived alone). The delayed discharge of older people from hospital is a topic of considerable policy relevance. Our study indicated that delay was independently related to two organisational issues. First, entry into long-term care entailed lengthy assessment procedures, uncertainty over who pays for this care, and waiting lists. Second, the nature of the team assessing people for discharge was associated with delay (the nurse-coordinated team made the fewest referrals for multidisciplinary assessments and had the longest delays). Additionally, the absence of a family carer was implicated in delay, which underlines the importance of family and friends in providing posthospital care and in maintaining older people in the community. Our study suggests that considerable delay in discharging older people from hospital originates from administrative/organisational issues; these were compounded by social services resource constraints. There is still much to be done therefore to improve coordination of care in order to provide a truly ‘seamless service’.

Notes: Objective To examine the feasibility of achieving designated target standards for the management of women with cervical and vulval cancer.Design Retrospective casenote review.Setting The Gynaecological Oncology Centre at Hammersmith Hospital, London.Population Sixty-one women with cervical and vulval cancer presenting to the gynaecological oncology clinic at the Hammersmith Hospital during 1996 and 1997. Various aspects of the management of those women were compared with standards suggested by a multidisciplinary panel of local experts. Targets included the referral and treatment process, the accuracy of staging, and measures of surgical performance.Results The target interval of seven days between receipt of the referral and the first visit at the cancer centre was achieved in 93% of women. Surgical treatment was administered to 92% of the women within the target of 20 working days from the first clinic appointment. Tumour close to or involving the margins of the specimen was noted in 13% of cervical and 9% of vulval cancers. The node count fell below the target standards in 13% of pelvic and 10% of groin dissections. Appropriate imaging investigations for staging were not undertaken in 15 of 39 cases (38%) of cervical cancer and in 5 out of 22 (23%) of vulval cancers.Conclusion The suggested targets of process and surgical performance are reasonable and achievable. These standards would be appropriate for national use. The area most clearly identified where these targets were not achieved was the requesting of complementary staging investigations. This could be addressed by the use of a simple investigation protocol to be included in each patient's notes and available at specialist clinics and gynaecology wards.

Notes: The advent of the Internet has created the possibility for exporters to serve international markets using virtual export channels (VECs). This paper identifies the factors that influence success in using these new channels to export markets. The paper suggests that how well firms use the technology is more important than what they use it for. Investment and commitment to the Internet influence successful implementation. Moreover, firms with an existing export sales capability fare better in using VECs.

Notes: [Auszug] The ex vivo priming and expansion of human cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) has potential for use in immunotherapy applications for cancer and infectious diseases. To overcome the difficulty in obtaining sufficient numbers of CTLs, we have developed artificial antigen-presenting cells (aAPCs) ...

Notes: Abstract Intestinal ultrasound, a frequently applied diagnostic tool in industrialized nations, has recently also been introduced in tropical regions. This study attempts to describe the anatomical and sonographical features of Ascaris lumbricoides in the human intestine. In the course of a schistosomiasis morbidity study in Madagascar, 581 inhabitants of a rice-farming village on the high plateau of the island had their stools examined by means of a modified Kato-Katz thick smear technique (four slides per sample); 53 % had eggs of Ascaris lumbricoides in their stools. Twenty-two individuals underwent intestinal ultrasound examination and, in six cases, Ascaris lumbricoides was visualized. All six patients showed eggs upon stool examination. At ultrasound, the parasite was seen as a large, curved echogenic strip (4–6 mm in diameter) with an inner, anechoic, longitudinal canal. The image resembled a winding highway, the central structure representing the pseudocoel of the parasite. Patients were treated with mebendazole. The excreted worms of one patient were scanned under water, showing the same characteristics as in vivo. We conclude that Ascaris lumbricoides has a characteristic sonographical appearance and should not be a confounding factor in studies using intestinal ultrasound.