Unexpectedly long hospital stays as an indicator of risk of unsafe care: an exploratory study.

Objectives: We developed an outcome indicator based on the finding that complications often prolong the patient's hospital stay. A higher percentage of patients with an unexpectedly long length of stay (UL-LOS) compared to the national average may indicate shortcomings in patient safety. We explored the utility of the UL-LOS indicator.

Facts and figures about patient associations in the Netherlands between 2007 and 2009: review of their activities and aims.

Introduction: To facilitate empowerment, the government encourages patient associations to participate in policy making discussions. To play a crucial role as one of the partners for the government in formulating policy on healthcare, information was needed about the activities and aims of Dutch patient associations. This article describes the development of the monitor in 2005 and 2006 and the most important outcomes and trends for 2007, 2008 and 2009.

Patient satisfaction revisited: a multilevel approach.

Patient satisfaction surveys are increasingly used for benchmarking purposes. In the Netherlands, the results of these surveys are reported at the univariate level without taking case mix factors into account. The first objective of the present study was to determine whether differences in patient satisfaction are attributed to the hospital, department or patient characteristics.

Muscle imaging: mapping responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation with high-density surface electromyography.

Representations of different body parts or muscles in the human primary motor cortex overlap extensively. At the effector level, most muscles are surrounded by and overlap with several neighbours as well. This hampers the assessment of excitability in individual muscles with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), even if so-called "focal" stimulating coils are used.