naftalan

In the close vicinity of Zagreb, only 27 km far from it, on slopes of gentle Moslavačka gora, there is a small historical town Ivanić Grad.

The nature wanted it to become famous for its exceptionally rare and strong natural sources of: - Medicinal oil naftalan - Sodium chloride hyperthermic brine The knowledge on medicinal qualities of naftalan and sodium chloride hyperthermic brine were a pre-condition for building a health resort NAFTALAN, unique in Europe and the world.

The medicinal properties of naftalan in treatment of various diseases, as a special oil type, have been known to medicine for more than 600 years.


Today in NAFTALAN, a complex skin, rheumatic and other diseases are treated including a medical rehabilitation. NAFTALAN, a special hospital for medical rehabilitation, has been open since 1989. There are 111 beds in single, double or triple hotel standard rooms. At guests disposal there is a spacious atrium with a café and three living rooms with a kitchenette and in sunny weather, guests can also sunbathe.

In the vicinity there is a sport park with a bowling alley, handball and football field and tennis courts. For all those who want more, after a 20- minute drive via highway to Zagreb, they can reach a treasury of cultural-historic, sport, hotel-catering and other tourist attractions.

In the restaurant, guest can taste various dishes and specialities of this area. The interior is nicely decorated, while the staff provide guests with the feeling of pleasure and satisfaction, thanks to their kindness and culinary skills. At least three dishes are offered on the menu, and for breakfast there is a buffet. In this, the care is taken about the patient’s diet, depending on the disease and the food is very tasty, suitable for all the treated diseases.

Call for special hospital wards for teenagers

Teenagers occupy more hospital beds than children, justifying calls for special adolescent wards, a leading expert said today.
New research published in the British Medical Journal showed that, contrary to most assumptions, hospital bed use increased as children went through puberty.
Enough teenagers are treated as in-patients each year for an average district general hospital to support a special teenage ward of 12 to 15 beds.
Russell Viner, a consultant in adolescent medicine at University College London, looked at the number of bed days taken up by teenagers in hospitals in England, Wales and Scotland.
Figures for teenage hospital stays between 1997 and 1998 were collected from 15 health boards in Scotland, three in Wales and 19 English health authorities.
There were 17 in-patient bed days per 10,000 youngsters aged 12, rising to 24.6 per 10,000 19-year-olds.
While more boys than girls occupied hospital beds at the age of 12, by the age of 17 more teenage girls than boys were in-patients.
The number of bed days taken up for day cases doubled from 2.32 per 10,000 people at 12 years old to 4.31 by the age of 19, the report found.
Despite the fact that 40 years ago experts said teenagers should be treated in separate wards, only a quarter of hospitals in England made some accommodation for their adolescent patients.
Teenagers are either admitted to the children's ward or an adult ward in a hospital, creating problems either way.
Mr Viner is the only specialist in adolescent medicine in the UK, highlighting the lack of services for teenagers.
Sue Burr, Royal College of Nursing advisor on paediatric nursing, said: "The problem has got worse over the last 10 to 15 years because the age of patients on children's wards has got younger and the age of those on adult wards has got older."
Two thirds of patients on adult hospital wards are now 65 or over, research has shown.
Ms Burr said: "Teenagers often opt to go on an adult ward, not realising it will be full of old people, but if they go to the children's ward they may have to be put with crying babies and very young children, which is equally problematic.
"It is ridiculous that in this day and age we still do not have the services for teenagers."
In an editorial, Aidan Macfarlane, consultant in charge of strategic planning of child and adolescent services in Oxford, said that creating wards with people specially trained in treating teenagers could provide a therapeutic environment and aid their recovery.
He added: "Most obviously, it could be argued that properly organised adolescent units provide for the specific developmental needs of those in the second decade of life - schooling, recreation, socialising, as well as for their increased needs for privacy.
"Further, for young adults with chronic diseases, who may be developmentally less mature than their peers, then an adolescent unit provides a more ideal hospital environment than those provided by either child or adult wards."

Grand opening and presentation of Akromion Special Hospital for Orthopaedics and Traumatology

Newly opened Akromion Orthopaedics Hospital is the only hospital in Europe with the latest integrated operating rooms technology.
Krapinske Toplice, April 11, 2008 – Special Hospital for Orthopaedics and Traumatology Akromion saw its grand opening today. The hospital was opened by the national secretary of public health Ante Zvonimir Golem, MD. Located in Krapinske Toplice, Akromion Hospital is the largest private hospital of this sort in Croatia, and among the leading ones in Europe. At the moment there are 39 employees. More than 40 mil kn were invested in its reconstruction and refurbishment with the help of Quaestus Fund. Akromion Hospital has three operating rooms with modern medical equipment and offers supreme accommodation for its patients. It is lead by a team of four top orthopaedists - Prof Miroslav Hašpl, MD, Prof Nikola Čičak, MD, Denis Tršek, MD, and Hrvoje Klobučar, MD. The hospital is expecting to entering into agreement with the Croatian Institute for Health Insurance very soon.

Among about three hundred guests at the grand opening of the hospital, there was the county perfect of Krapinsko-Zagorska County Sonja Borovčak, Vice-President of the Parliament Željka Antunović and famous sports figures Vlado Šola, Ivica Kostelić and his father Ante.

Prof Nikola Čičak, MD, surgeon and Medical Manager of Akromion Hospital, said on this occasion: „For years we have been dreaming about working in a top hospital and sometimes we looked at our foreign colleagues in modern hospitals with envy. Finally, now we have our own hospital, in some ways even better than the ones we used to admire. Once Akromion reaches its full capacity, about 3000 patients a year will be able to share this joy with us.

Prof Miroslav Hašpl, MD, surgeon and President of Akromion Hospital Administrative Council stated: „We will try to be the best. After this success, our motivation can be cut by scalpel. Our patients, who were waiting for this hospital to open, will not regret trusting us.

Tomislav Matić, Director at Quaestus, said: „At the time of setting down its strategy, Quaestus decided to invest in the health sector. An investment in the health sector is an investment in the future, because we know that health is a value that will be raising highest. When the team which now leads Akromion appeared, we knew that was a chance we couldn’t miss.

Equipment

Akromion Hospital is by now the largest private-owned orthopaedic hospital in the Republic of Croatia, it spreads over an area of about 2000 square meters, on three floors. The building is rented from Krapinske Toplice Special Hospital for Medical Rehabilitation and has been completely reconstructed. A completely new operating block with three operating rooms and a wake-up room have been built, while the ground floor, second floor and attic have been completely redone. Operating rooms have state-of-the-art equipment. There are 11 rooms on the ward, three of these are single, six are double rooms and there are two suites. Each room has a separate bathroom and a toilette, as well as a TV set and Internet connection, which ensures maximum comfort for the patients.

E-hospital

The hospital is entirely computerized. There are no patients’ charts, paperwork and waiting lists. Besides for having the most modern medical equipment, one of the three operating rooms is equipped with Olympus HD ALPHA technology – integrated operating rooms technology. This latest technology enables doctors and hospital personnel a complete access to graphic and textual medical data about patients during surgery, which allows for immediate and timely consultations during surgeries. Such orthopaedic integrated operating room is for now the only one in Europe and can be adequately said that Akromion, with its equipment, is one of the leading orthopaedic centres in Europe.

Professional team

Hospital’s professional team consists of, for now, four leading orthopaedic surgeons led by university professors, Prof Nikola Čičak, MD, and Prof Miroslav Hašpl, MD. The team also consists of Hrvoje Klobučar, MD, and Denis Tršek, MD. Anaesthesiology team is comprised by Siniša Šoštarić, MD, and Krešimir Oremuš, MD.
Services

Akromion provides all medical services in the field of orthopaedic surgery and traumatology: from arthroscopic surgeries of the shoulder, knee, hip, ankle and elbow to artificial joint replacements of the hip, knee, shoulder, ankle and elbow. There is also reconstructive procedures on all joints, treating fractures and consequences thereof. In the beginning we will not deal with backbone and malignant tumors, while we will partially cover paediatric orthopaedic surgeries. The capacity of the three operating rooms is 3000 surgeries a year.

The patients of Akromion Hospital have the unique possibility for post–operational rehabilitation at the same location, due to the already existing service within Krapinske Toplice Hospital. Hence, patients receive a complete service – from examination, surgery to rehabilitation – all at the same place.
Croatian Institute for Health Insurance (Cro. HZZO).

Since Akromion is a private-owned hospital, patients can arrange for treatments and surgeries independently by themselves. Nevertheless, hospital’s capacity can also be used for treatments covered by HZZO. This agreement is expected very soon, mostly because of the fact that patients wait for months to have surgeries in state hospitals, and some surgical procedures will only be possible in Akromion Hospital.

Investment

Special Hospital for Orthopaedics and Traumatology of the Bone and Joint System Akromion was founded by Osteon ltd., whose investors are Quaestus Private Equity Capital Fund and four top orthopaedists from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and the Department of Traumatology, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb: Prof Miroslav Hašpl, MD, Prof Nikola Čičak, MD, Denis Tršek, MD, and Hrvoje Klobučar, MD. Work on the hospital started on July 30, 2007, the investment was over 40 mil kn. Currently, there are 40 employees

Lourdes Specialty Hospital of Southern New Jersey

Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County has a new 30-bed unit for seriously ill acute patients who require extended hospital stays before returning home. Lourdes Specialty Hospital of Southern New Jersey LLC is a partnership between Lourdes Health System and AcuityHealthcare of Charlotte, N.C.It is the first long-term acute care hospital, or LTAC, in southern New Jersey. There are four other such facilities in the state, located in Essex, Monmouth and Ocean counties.
The primary purpose of an LTAC is to give patients the long-term healing time and attention they need to gain strength and improved health before going home or being transferred to another level of care, such as a rehab hospital or skilled nursing facility. Although the hospital is located on the third floor of LMCBC, and is completely integrated within the hospital, the Specialty Hospital operates as a separate and distinct facility. It accepts patients from other hospitals around the region.

Patients treated at LTACs like the Lourdes Specialty Hospital will typically have a longer length of stay than acute care hospitals, averaging 25 days compared to five days. This is due to patients' complex medical and rehabilitative needs. Patients are admitted directly from short-stay hospitals, often from intensive care units, with ventilator-dependent respiratory failure or other complex medical conditions that require aggressive and continuous acute-care services. The unit is designed for patients with:

Cardiopulmonary conditions resulting from trauma;
A severe medical illness or post-operative problem, or
The development of an acute illness superimposed on a chronic illness like malnutrition, cardiac disease or COPD.
Many of LTAC patients require weaning from a ventilator or special care for respiratory or cardiac conditions. LTAC patients are considered "medically complex" and have a number of medical conditions at the same time. For example:
Cancer;
Kidney problems that require dialysis;
Infectious diseases that require long-term I.V. therapy
Complicated post-surgical recoveries;
Vascular disorders worsened by conditions such as unstable diabetes, high blood pressure, heart arrhythmias and swelling
Complex wounds (Stage III and IV) with a need for intensive assessment and treatment using specialized medical equipment;
Neurological and musculoskeletal disorders requiring comprehensive rehabilitation such as brain and spinal cord injuries
Degenerative diseases; fractures; joint replacements; amputations; and multiple trauma usually complicated by medical instability or deconditioning following a lengthy illness or surgery precluding the patient from meeting acute rehabilitation criteria.
The Specialty Hospital has six private and 12 semiprivate rooms. The unit has a staff of affiliated doctors, nurses and therapists who keep the patient's primary physician informed of progress made during the stay. Each patient has an individualized care plan developed with his or her family. The family is encouraged to be involved, with a positive outcome the focus of care.
If an emergency does arise, however, the resources of Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County are only a few steps away, 24 hours a day.

For more information, to make a referral or to reach the management and staff of Lourdes Specialty Hospital of Southern New Jersey, call 609-835-3650.

Broadmoor Hospital

Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton. Scotland has a similar institution, located at Carstairs, officially known as The State Hospital; also called Carstairs Hospital which serves Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Broadmoor complex houses about 260 patients all of whom are men since the female service closed in September 2007, with most of the women moving to a new service in Southall, a few moving to the national high secure service for women at Rampton and a small number transferring elsewhere. At any one time there are also approximately 36 patients on trial leave at other units. Most of the patients there suffer from severe mental illness. Many of the patients also have personality disorders. Most have either been convicted of serious crimes, or been found unfit to plead in a trial for such crimes. Although average stay for the total population is about six years, the fact that some patients have stayed for over thirty years skews this figure. Most patients' stay is much shorter than six years.

The catchment area for the hospital has recently undergone some rationalisation of the London area and now serves all of the NHS Regions: London, Eastern, South East, South West.