Can J Emerg Med
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Comparison of functional outcomes in elderly who have sustained a minor trauma with or without head injury: a prospective multicenter cohort study.
The consequences of minor trauma involving a head injury (MT-HI) in independent older adults are largely unknown. This study assessed the impact of a head injury on the functional outcomes six months post-injury in older adults who sustained a minor trauma. ⋯ This study did not demonstrate that the occurrence of a MT-HI is associated with a worse functional or cognitive prognosis than other minor injuries without a head injury in an elderly population, six months after injury.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Slow or swift, your patients' experience won't drift: absence of correlation between physician productivity and the patient experience.
Absract To evaluate the relationship between Emergency Physician (EP) productivity and patient satisfaction with Emergency Department (ED) care.
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Early reperfusion therapy in the treatment of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients can improve outcomes. Silent myocardial infarction is associated with poor prognosis, but little is known about its effect on treatment delays. We aimed to characterize STEMI patients presenting without complaints of pain to the emergency departments (EDs) in Singapore. ⋯ A small proportion of STEMI patients presented without any pain to the ED. They tended to have a higher D2B and risks of mortality. Targeted effort is required to improve diagnostic and treatment efficiency in this group.
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The predominant causes of acute mechanical small bowel obstruction in geriatric patients are adhesions and hernias, which is not much different than in other adult age groups. Unusual etiologies may be encountered, such as volvulus or gallstone ileus, but a displaced feeding gastrostomy tube is a distinctly rare cause of intestinal obstruction which needs to be considered by emergency physicians as it may be increasingly encountered.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
A comparative study of patient characteristics, opinions, and outcomes, for patients who leave the emergency department before medical assessment.
The emergency department (ED) left-without-being-seen (LWBS) rate is a performance indicator, although there is limited knowledge about why people leave, or whether they seek alternate care. We studied characteristics of ED LWBS patients to determine factors associated with LWBS. ⋯ LWBS patients had similar opinions, experiences, and expectations as control patients. The main reason for LWBS was waiting longer than expected. LWBS patients were more likely to seek further health care, and did so sooner. Patients wait because of concern about their health problem. Shorter wait times and improved communication may reduce the LWBS rate.