Emergencias
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To assess the efficacy of the Boussignac continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device for treating patients with acute respiratory failure transported by an emergency medical service. ⋯ Most patients tolerated treatment with the Boussignac CPAP device and improved clinically. Few required intubation and mortality was very low.
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To analyze the impact of quality-indicator-based measures for improving quality of care for acute poisoning in pediatric emergency departments. ⋯ The corrective measures led to improvements in some quality indicators. There is still room for improvement in these emergency departamens' care of pediatric poisoning.
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To determine the probability of finding significant coronary lesions, the time to diagnosis, and the safety of a new diagnostic approach based on high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hsTnT) testing followed by coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) in patients with chest pain of possible coronary origin. The method was compared with our hospital emergency department's standard practice. ⋯ The new strategy could accelerate diagnosis and increase the probability of finding significant coronary lesions, but we found no significant differences in adverse events in the 3 months following diagnosis. These findings should be confirmed in studies with larger numbers of patients.
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To describe the characteristics of frequent users of hospital emergency departments and analyze whether characteristics varied in relation to how revisits were distributed over the course of the year studied. ⋯ Our study shows that the frequent user has specific characteristics and loyally comes to the same emergency department over the course of a year. Patients whose revisits are dispersed over a longer period have more complex problems and use more resources during their initial visit.
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The return-visit rate has been suggested as a measure of emergency department quality of care. We aimed to identify the reasons for emergency revisits and the percentage of returns related to problems with quality of care in the previous visit. ⋯ Most emergency department revisits are related to the progression of the disease that led to the first visit. Only a small percentage can be linked to diagnostic or treatment errors in the previous visit.