Articles: pandemics.
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The ESI algorithm is widely used to triage patients in the emergency room. However, few studies have assessed the reliability of ESI to accurately triage trauma patients. The aim of this study was to compare vital signs, resource utilization, and patient outcomes among trauma patients during the pandemic in 2020 vs. the previous year prior to the pandemic. ⋯ The COVID-19 pandemic affected the triage of trauma patients. During 2020, patients utilized less resources compared to the previous year. Additionally, younger and elderly patients had different vital signs, resource utilization, and clinical outcomes although both being assigned ESI level 2. Younger trauma patients may have been over-triaged in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Emerg Med Australas · Aug 2023
Planning for the next pandemic: Reflections on lessons from the uncontained transmission phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and their impacts on emergency departments in Australia.
Australia was a world leader in managing the earlier waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, three major turning points changed the trajectory of the pandemic: mass vaccinations, emergence of more transmissible variants and re-opening of Australia's borders. However, there were also concomitant missteps and premature shifts in pandemic response policy that led to mixed messaging, slow initial vaccination uptake and minimal mitigation measures in response to the Omicron variant. ⋯ This led to an exponential increase in cases and significant impacts on the health system, particularly, EDs. This paper reflects on this phase of the pandemic to urge for system-level changes that instal better safeguards for ED capacity, safety and staff well-being for future pandemics. This is essential to strengthening our health system's resilience and to better protecting our communities against such emergencies.
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Patient-oriented research (POR) is a trend that has emerged over several decades and is particularly prominent in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. It involves patient and other stakeholder participation in the planning, conduct and dissemination of biomedical and health services research and it can be seen as a form of public participation and engagement in activities that affect the lives and well-being of communities. Criticisms of POR revolve around its susceptibility to tokenistic treatment of patient participants and paternalistic dominance of the research agenda by professional researchers, academics and clinicians. ⋯ It will explore the interface between POR, community activism and community-based participatory research. The contextual importance of the COVID-19 pandemic experience is stressed. The commentary will particularly focus on the US-based Patient Centred Outcomes Research Institute, its origins within a movement to enhance emphasis on publicly funded comparative effectiveness research, and its more recent evolution in the direction of community empowerment in POR.
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Gun homicide rates have risen 35% across the USA since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. One promising intervention to prevent violent crime is summer youth employment programs (SYEPs), which provide youth with meaningful workplace experiences, prosocial engagements, and developmental opportunities during the summer months, when many otherwise lack structure. This paper presents a cost analysis of violence prevention-focused SYEPs to help implementers understand the costs generally and in their own community contexts-to advocate for adoption and secure funding of, effectively budget for, and successfully implement SYEPs. ⋯ SYEPs with the goal of reaching youth who are justice-involved or at risk of being victims or perpetrators of violence can cost $3331 per youth assisted, with 54% of this cost directly paid to youth through stipends. Cost per youth is driven by the intensity of the mentoring and support that community organizations provide to the program participants. Knowing the cost per youth assisted can inform further analysis, implementation, and expansion of SYEPs.