Atypical Mixed Tumor of the Skin in the Gluteal Region with Strong and Diffuse Nuclear Expression of the p16 Stain: A Case Report.

Benign, atypical, or malignant chondroid syringoma (mixed tumor of the skin) have almost identical clinical presentation with similar histological features, except for infiltrative growth, and perineural and vascular invasion in the malignant type. Tumors with borderline features are described as atypical chondroid syringoma. Immunohistochemical profiles in all three types are similar, with the the main difference in the expression of the p16 stain. We present a case of an atypical chondroid syringoma in an 88-year-old female patient with a subcutaneous, painless nodule in the gluteal region and with diffuse, strong nuclear immunohistochemical staining for p16. To our knowledge, this is the first such reported case.

How health care professionals confront and solve ethical dilemmas - a tale of two countries: Slovenia and Croatia.

AIM: To assess the differences in the way how Slovenian and Croatian health care professionals (HCPs) confront ethical dilemmas and perceive the role of hospital ethics committees (HECs). METHODS: This cross-sectional, survey-based study involved HCPs from three Slovenian and five Croatian university medical centers (UMC). The final sample sizes were 308 (244 or 79.2% women) for Slovenia and 485 (398 or 82.1% women) for Croatia. RESULTS: Compared with Croatian physicians, Slovenian physicians reported a higher share of ethical dilemmas regarding waiting periods for diagnostics or treatment, suboptimal working conditions due to interpersonal relationships in the ward, and end-of-life treatment withdrawal, and a lower share regarding access to palliative care and patient information protection. Compared with Croatian nurses, Slovenian nurses reported a lower share of ethical dilemmas regarding the distribution of limited resources, recognizing the patient's best interests, and access to palliative care. Compared with Croatian other HCPs, Slovenian other HCPs reported a lower burden of ethical dilemmas regarding waiting periods for diagnostics or treatment, distribution of limited resources, and access to palliative care. When encountering an ethical dilemma, all HCPs in both countries would first consult their colleagues. Slovenian and Croatian HCPs recognized the importance of the HECs to a similar extent, but viewed their role differently. CONCLUSION: Croatian and Slovenian HCPs are confronted with different ethical dilemmas and perceive the role of HECs differently.

Assessment of the Quality of Public Hospital Healthcare Services by using SERVQUAL.

Hospital healthcare service quality measurement represents an important approach for advancing healthcare systems. This paper presents preliminary results of a research on the quality of healthcare services provided by a large, public, university hospital centre in Croatia, based on the Gaps Model of Service Quality and the SERVQUAL instrument. The importance of particular service quality dimensions was analyzed, as well as the gaps between patient perceptions and expectations of healthcare services provided by 18 departments of the university hospital centre. Results revealed the gaps that exist at the level of the university hospital centre as a whole, showing the size variations in different service quality dimensions. The management of the university hospital centre should improve healthcare service quality in all dimensions by paying particular attention to the 'responsiveness' and 'tangibility', where the largest gap was identified.