Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To determine whether population density is an independent predictor of survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest managed by basic life support (BLS) services using automated external defibrillators (AEDs). ⋯ Population density is strongly associated with survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. BLS services within areas with population densities < or = 100/sq mi sustained little benefit from the addition of AEDs to their treatment of patients who had out-of-hospital cardiac arrests.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Frequent users of the emergency department: can we intervene?
To determine whether the use of individualized patient care plans and multidisciplinary case management would decrease ED utilization by frequent ED users. ⋯ The use of individualized care plans and case management did not significantly decrease ED utilization by frequent ED users. However, the impact of individualized care plans and case management on other quality-of-care measures (e.g., patient satisfaction, ED length of stay, hospitalizations, primary care visits, and health care costs) remains to be determined.
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To identify characteristics associated with provision of bystander CPR in witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases. ⋯ Patients who have had witnessed cardiac arrests outside the home are nearly 4 times more likely to receive bystander CPR, and are twice as likely to survive. This observation emphasizes the need for CPR training of family members in the authors' locale. This phenomenon may also represent a significant confounder in studies of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and resuscitation.