Pilot of a multicomponent program for people with dementia and their care partners: Health services staff expectations, experiences and observations.

There is increased recognition of the need to improve post-diagnostic pathways for people with dementia and their care partners living in the community to access rehabilitation services to support independence and wellbeing. However, there is minimal evidence on implementing rehabilitation services for this population. The study aimed to present the expectations and experiences of allied health staff involved in piloting the Sustainable Personalised Interventions for Cognition, Care and Engagement (SPICE) program based at an outpatient clinic of a public rehabilitation hospital.

The variable relationship between the National Early Warning Score on admission to hospital, the primary discharge diagnosis, and in-hospital mortality.

Background: Patients with an elevated admission National Early Warning Score (NEWS) are more likely to die while in hospital. However, it is not known if this increased mortality risk is the same for all diagnoses. The aim of this study was to determine and compare the increased risk of in-hospital mortality associated with an elevated NEWS and different primary discharge diagnoses in unselected emergency admissions to a UK university teaching hospital.

A pilot observational study of the association of 24-hour mortality with the subjective assessment of the forearm skin temperature and moisture compared to other bedside indicators of illness severity.

Background: Although the association of peripheral skin temperature with infection, serious illness and death have been recognised for centuries, few studies have explicitly compared this finding with other bedside indicators of illness severity. This study compared subjectively assessed dorsal forearm skin temperature and moisture with other indicators of illness severity.

Methods: Non-interventional observational study of acutely ill medical patients admitted to a low-resource Ugandan hospital, which examined the association of subjectively assessed dorsal forearm skin temperature and other bedside findings with death within 24 h.

Should respiratory rate be measured on admission over a few seconds by a smartphone application or over 15 minutes by a piezoelectric device? A prospective observational pilot study of acutely ill medical patients admitted to a low-resource Ugandan hospital.

Background: the optimal period over which respiratory rate should be measured is uncertain.

Setting: medical ward of low resource Ugandan hospital, Methods: comparison of the first respiratory rates measured on admission over seconds using a smartphone application with measurements over 15 minutes using a piezoelectric device.

Results: There was a poor correlation between respiratory rates measured by the piezoelectric device and rates measured by a smartphone application.