Emergency department patients' perception of care: do doctors understand their patients?

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 42-55).The aim of my study is to directly compare the patient’s perceptions of care received in the emergency department to that of the attending physician’s. The aim is to give us better insight into how the patient experiences their care, with a view to improving the level of care offered. The study elucidates the emphasis a patient places on aspects of their care such as empathy, communication, waiting times, etc. The study was conducted at GF Jooste Emergency Department over a period of eight weeks. Patients voluntarily, and with full anonymity, filled in a short questionnaire. The attending physician did the same. Questionnaires were collected and data fed into a database, analyzed and the results interpreted

A Somalia mission experience

Reports about The Horn of Africa Famine Crisis in 2011 flooded our news bulletins and newspapers. Yet the nations of the world failed to respond and alleviate the unfolding disaster. In August 2011, the Gift of the Givers Foundation mobilised what was to become the largest humanitarian mission ever conducted by an African organisation. Almost a year later, the effort continues, changing the face of disaster medicine as we know it

The ultrasonographic determination of the position of the mental foramen and its relation to hard tissue landmarks

Objective. The goal of this ultrasound based cross-sectional study was to make use of ultrasound to determine the position of the mental foramen in relation to hard tissue landmarks. Material and methods. One hundred Black and Caucasian subjects were included. An ultrasound transducer was used to locate the mental foramina. Distances to various landmarks were measured and compared. Results. All mental foramina were visualised ultrasonographically. The mean distances to various landmarks from the mental foramen for the entire group on the right and left sides respectively were as follows: a) 22.8 mm (SD 2.04 mm) and 22.8 mm (SD 2.0 mm) to the cusp of the related tooth, b) 13.2 mm (SD 1.6 mm) and 13.2 mm (SD 1.6 mm) to the inferior border of the mandible. The mean position of the mental foramen was found to be 63.4% (SD 1.8%) of the distance from the cusp of the related tooth to the inferior border of the mandible on the right and 63.3% (SD 1.7%) on the left. There were statistically significant differences between race groups and genders, but not between age groups. Conclusion. These results suggest that ultrasound is a sensitive modality to locate the mental foramen. There are minor, statistically significant (but clinically insignificant) differences in the position of the mental foramen with regard to various hard tissue landmarks