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Are therapeutic decisions made on the medical admissions unit any more evidence-based than they used to be?
J Eval Clin Pract. 2009 Dec;15(6):1180-6
Authors: Ayre S, Walters G
RATIONALE, AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To determine whether inpatients in a medical admissions unit in a UK district general hospital received evidence-based therapies in 2008. METHODS: The diagnoses of and therapies received by inpatients at the George Eliot Hospital National Health Service Trust in Nuneaton were recorded. A clinical librarian searched the literature (Clinical Knowledge Summaries, Cochrane Library, Medline and Embase) for the best evidence for each diagnosis-therapy pair. Evidence was graded on the following scale: systematic review, randomized controlled trial, non-experimental evidence and no or contrary evidence. RESULTS: One hundred and two patients generated 150 diagnosis-therapy pairs. Of these 61 (41%) had systematic review level evidence supporting them, 17 (11%) randomized controlled trial evidence, 48 (32%) non-experimental evidence and 24 (16%) no evidence. CONCLUSIONS: Results were comparable with previous studies. Care in a medical admissions unit in 2008 is still evidence-based, but, despite the vast growth in medical literature, no more than it was. The process was a useful collaboration between medical and library staff to audit the quality of patient care.
PMID: 20367724 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]