Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Appropriate social care delivered at the right time can potentially maintain health and delay or avoid the need for health care interventions such as emergency hospitalisation. We describe a study, currently underway in Wales, which examines whether there is an association between the implementation from 2008 of policy aimed at reducing emergency hospital admissions among people with long term conditions and a change in provision of local authority-supported social care for people aged 65 and over. ⋯ There is potential to use routine data to examine the use of social care and the interaction with use of health care.
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Secondary telephone triage to divert low-acuity patients to alternative non-ambulance services before ambulance arrival has been trialled in the UK and USA as a management strategy to cope with the increase in ambulance demand. The objective of this systematic review was to examine the literature on the structure, safety and success of secondary triage systems. ⋯ These results suggest that, while secondary triage of these patients is safe, further research is required to determine its most appropriate structure and its effect on ambulance demand.
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Healthcare professionals working in emergency medicine are often exposed to noisy environments. We determined if there is any difference in cognitive task performance required for clinical decision-making of healthcare professionals in a quiet compared with noisy environment and to assess the subjective experience of participants with regard to performance in a noisy environment. ⋯ Performance of mental tasks is maintained during noise exposure but noise exposure is associated with significant degrees of self-reported distress.