The effectiveness of a hospital diabetes outreach service in supporting care for acutely admitted patients with diabetes.

BACKGROUND: Patients with diabetes have increased frequency of hospital admissions and longer lengths of stay compared to patients without diabetes. Our specialist diabetes inpatient service was reconfigured to deliver a proactive diabetes outreach service to improve the overall care of this population. AIMS: To ascertain the effect of a structured diabetes outreach service to acutely admitted patients with diabetes on avoidable admissions, delayed discharges and appropriate diabetes related follow-up plans. METHODS: Audits were carried out before and 4 months after the introduction of a diabetes outreach service. The proportion of patients under care of the diabetes team, avoidable admissions, delayed discharges and existence of effective follow-up plans were compared pre- and post-implementation of this outreach service. RESULTS: The number of inpatients with diabetes fell by 35% (83 on a typical day pre-outreach vs. 53 post-outreach) despite a similar number of total medical admissions in that month (1449 vs.1459). This was due to a reduction in those admitted with diabetes related (13 vs. 5) and general medical (29 vs. 10) problems whilst numbers requiring other specialist care (41 vs. 39) remained unchanged. The proportion of patients under the care of diabetes team rose (23% vs. 73%) while those with avoidable admissions (18% vs. 7%), delayed discharges (17% vs. 2%) and inappropriate discharge plans (65% vs. 11%) all fell. CONCLUSION: This reformatted service was associated with a marked improvement in a number of parameters relevant to inpatient care.

Students' perception about mental illness.

BACKGROUND: In developing countries like India, there are evidences that stigma associated with mental illness is increasing. As in parts of the developing world, with advancement of urbanization and rapid industrialization, people tend to react in a very peculiar and biased way when they confront a mentally ill person. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study aimed to find out students' opinion about mental illness. A total of 100 students (50 male and 50 female) from Ranchi University were purposively recruited for the study, and the 51-item Opinion about Mental Illness (OMI) Scale was administered. RESULTS: Majority of the students were from Hindu families, of whom 42 (84%) were males and 38 (68%) were females. With regard to OMI scale, the item, viz., 'The law should allow a woman to divorce her husband as soon as he has been confined in mental hospital with a severe mental illness', both male (46%) and female (56%) students were neutral (significant at 0.014, P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Overall no significant level of difference emerged between male and female students with regard to opinion about mental illness.

Structure of N',N'-dibenzylbenzohydrazide.

C21H20N2O, Mr = 316.4, monoclinic, P2(1)/c, a = 9.985 (2), b = 17.070 (3), c = 10.119 (2) A, beta = 95.99 (1) degree, V = 1715.3 A3, Z = 4, Dx = 1.225 g cm-3, Mo K alpha (lambda = 0.71069 A), mu = 0.82 cm-1, F(000) = 672, T = 295 K. Final R = 0.043, wR = 0.042 for 1139 reflections with I greater than 3 sigma(I). There is one hydrogen bond in the structure with N-H...O = 2.05 (4) and N...O = 2.923 (5) A.

Eye strain from convergence insufficiency.

Eye strain and headache are common ocular symptoms, and the main cause in persons aged 15 to 40 is convergence insufficiency. It is more common in females than in males. Many patients are supplied with glasses for eye strain without the causative convergence insufficiency being treated. The treatment in most cases is orthoptic exercises.