ABSTRACT
A study was conducted where the GPs in a district answered a questionnaire on reasons for hospital admission, divided into the categories: needed hospital investigation, hospital treatment, or needed care and nursing. They judged whether the admission could have been prevented. Finally, a multidisciplinary panel discussed ways to obtain better courses of admission. Of 266 admissions, 40 (15%) were due to a need for care and nursing. Ninety-seven (37%) of the admissions could be replaced by a short one-day stay, and 52 (20%) could have been postponed until the next day if that was possible. The panel discussion showed that municipalities can do more to strengthen the local professional support. It is concluded that the interface between primary care and the hospital should offer better opportunities for one-day admissions or sub-acute admissions, and that municipalities must be more aware of their responsibility for the care of fragile and ill people.
Subject(s)
Emergency Service, Hospital , Patient Admission , Adult , Aged , Community Health Services/organization & administration , Denmark , Emergency Service, Hospital/statistics & numerical data , Family Practice/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Length of Stay , Middle Aged , Needs Assessment , Nursing Assessment , Primary Health Care/organization & administration , Referral and Consultation , Socioeconomic Factors , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
Five doctors in general practice sent identical questionnaires to all those of their listed patients who in the previous year had received one or more prescriptions for an ulcer medication in the groups H2 receptor antagonists, acid pump inhibitors, bismuth and sucralfate preparations. The patients were identified by the pharmacy. Two hundred and fifty-nine questionnaires were returned, and the response rate was 83%. Four point nine percent of an adult population of 7160 received in the year 1993 at least one prescription for ulcer medicine, and 0.87% were in constant treatment. On average the doctors met 49 dyspeptic patients per 1000 adults per year. This is far more than found by gastroenterologists in studies of different ways of handling the dyspeptic patient in general practice.
Subject(s)
Anti-Ulcer Agents/administration & dosage , Dyspepsia/epidemiology , Adolescent , Adult , Aged , Denmark , Family Practice , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Retrospective Studies , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
In October 1991, 1.567 gay/bisexual men throughout Denmark returned an anonymous questionnaire enclosed in the magazine of the National Gay and Lesbian Association. Most were younger, well educated men living in the Copenhagen area. 76% had been tested for HIV, 15% were infected. As in 1988, the median number of partners in 1991 was 2-5. Eighty-two percent of the sexually active men engaged in anal sex, of these half used condoms consistently. Anal sex was practised more with steady partners and condom use was more common with casual partners. One out of eight had engaged in unprotected anal intercourse with a partner with discordant HIV-serostatus, down from one in three in 1988. It is concluded, that Danish gay men have not further limited their sexual life during the later years. The majority of the respondents have increased sexual safety, but risky sex still prevails among a substantial minority, and safe sex campaigns should continue.
