Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
-
People who inject drugs (PWID) have worse health than non-injectors and are at heightened risk of incidents that necessitate hospital emergency department (ED) visits. ⋯ PWID in Melbourne and Vancouver attend EDs for different reasons; information about PWID visits can help EDs cater for them and provide insights for prevention.
-
Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common bacterial infection in children that can result in permanent renal damage. This study prospectively assessed the diagnostic performance of procalcitonin (PCT) for predicting acute pyelonephritis (APN) among children with febrile UTI presenting to the paediatric emergency department (ED). ⋯ PCT has better sensitivity and specificity than CRP and WBC count for distinguishing between APN and lower UTI. PCT is a valuable marker for predicting APN in children with febrile UTI. It may be considered in the initial investigation and therapeutic strategies for children presenting to the ED.
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
Implementation of a novel communication tool and its effect on patient comprehension of care and satisfaction.
Emergency department (ED) communication has been demonstrated as requiring improvement and ED patients have repeatedly demonstrated poor comprehension of the care they receive. Through patient focus groups, the authors developed a novel tool designed to improve communication and patient comprehension. ⋯ Using their novel communication tool, the authors were not able to show a statistically significant improvement in either comprehension or satisfaction, though a tendency towards improved comprehension was seen.
-
A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether pelvic immobilisation with a pelvic compression device or with a wrapped sheet would provide haemorrhage control. Four studies were relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are shown in table 3. The clinical bottom line is that both may provide some haemorrhage control, but there is insufficient evidence to recommend one over the other