Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To determine the effect of physician knowledge of parental expectations on satisfaction with emergency department (ED) care. ⋯ Physician knowledge of written parental expectations may improve parental satisfaction during an ED visit. Further work is needed to overcome the barriers to physician review of the expectation survey to maximize parent satisfaction.
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The lack of valid classification methods for emergency department (ED) visit urgency has resulted in large variation in reported rates of nonurgent ED utilization. ⋯ The explicit criteria and resources methods best approximate implicit criteria in classifying ED visit urgency in infants younger than six months of age. If confirmed in further studies, resources utilized has the potential to be an inexpensive, easily applicable method for urgency classification of infant ED visits when limited data are available.
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Between 1993 and 2003, visits to U. S. emergency departments (EDs) increased by 26%, to a total of 114 million visits annually. At the same time, the number of U. ⋯ In this article, the authors begin by describing the overlap between the research agendas on daily surge capacity and patient flow. Next, they propose two models that have potential applications for both daily surge capacity and hospitalwide patient-flow research. Finally, they identify potential research questions that are based on applications of the proposed research models.
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This article reviews what is known about daily emergency department (ED) surge and ED surge capacity and illustrates its potential relevance during a catastrophic event. Daily ED surge is a sudden increase in the demand for ED services. There is no well-accepted, objective measure of daily ED surge. ⋯ A multidimensional measure is needed that reflects both the core components and their relative contribution to ED surge capacity. Although many types of factors may influence ED surge capacity, relatively little formal research has been conducted in this area. A better understanding of daily ED surge capacity and influencing factors will improve our ability to simulate the potential impact that different types of catastrophic events may have on the surge capacity of hospital EDs nationwide.
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There are no standardized measures of hospital disaster preparedness or hospital "surge capacity." ⋯ Among hospitals in Los Angeles County, disaster preparedness and surge capacity appear to be limited by a failure to fully integrate interagency training and planning and a severely limited surge capacity, although there is a generally high level of availability of equipment and supplies.