Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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The prognostic role of N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) in patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) has not been evaluated. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether NT-proBNP level could predict mortality in hospitalised CAP patients. ⋯ NT-proBNP level is an independent predictor of mortality in hospitalised CAP patients. The performance of NT-proBNP level is comparable to those of PSI and CURB65 in predicting mortality.
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Unless emergency departments have adequate capacity to meet demand, they will fail to meet clinical and performance standards and will be operating in the 'coping zone'. This carries risks both for staff and patients. ⋯ Proper capacity planning is vital, but is often poorly done. Planning using aggregated data will lead to inadequate capacity. Understanding demand, and particularly the variation in that demand, is critical to success. Analysis of emergency department demand and capacity is the first step towards effective workforce planning and process redesign.
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The Inter-facility Transport (IFT) service provided by the Emergency Department (ED) is a vital service in Hong Kong. Patients need to be rapidly transported over distances to access appropriate healthcare facilities. ⋯ The crude cost of providing IFT service by the ED was reasonable and acceptable.