The function of patient-centered care in mitigating the effect of nursing shortage on the outcomes of care.

Background: The shortage of nursing staff is a national and international issue. Inadequate number of hospital nurse staff leads to poor health care services. Yet the effects of patient-centeredness between the relationships of nursing shortage on the quality of care (QC) and patient safety (PS) have not been explored.

Low Bone Mass Secondary to Antipsychotic Medications.

Background And Objective: Antipsychotic medications are known to cause low bone mass. The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence of osteopenia and osteoporosis secondary to patients taking antipsychotic medications.

Patients And Methods: This prospective study included 175 patients taking antipsychotic medications and attending the psychiatric clinics at the King Fahd Hospital of the University, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.

Two decades of treatment seeking for substance use disorders in Saudi Arabia: trends and patterns in a rehabilitation facility in Dammam.

Background: Treatment provision and treatment seeking for substance use disorders is a relatively new phenomenon in the Middle East. The present study aims to study these trends among first admissions to the specialized addiction treatment Amal Hospital of Dammam over its first two decades (1986-2006). The main outcome measures were: annual inception number (AIN), relative frequency of substances (RFS), relative frequency of drug combinations (RFDC), mean number of substances (MNS), and sociodemographic changes.

Psychiatric admission in a general hospital. Patients profile and patterns of service utilization over a decade.

Objective: To analyze the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of admitted patients and the patterns of their service utilization over a decade from March 1988 to March 1998.

Methods: Prospective data compilation using a structured questionnaire, hospital records and follow-up observations at King Fahd Hospital of the University in Al-Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Results: A total of 1366 patients (683 of each sex) had 2217 admissions in 10 years.