Articles: emergency-department.
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False-positive peripheral blood cultures due to contamination pose clinical and financial consequences for patients, families, and hospitals. Educating staff who draw peripheral blood cultures about hospital policy, using a blood culture-drawing kit, having a dedicated team obtaining peripheral blood cultures, and following up with staff who draw a contaminated peripheral blood cultures have been shown to reduce the rate of false-positive peripheral blood cultures. The objective of this study was to reduce the rate of false-positive peripheral blood cultures in a pediatric emergency department using the previously mentioned measures. ⋯ The decline in contaminated blood cultures shows that the interventions described significantly reduced the rate of false-positive peripheral blood cultures in the emergency department.
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J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract · Sep 2013
Multicenter Study Observational StudyQuality of care for acute asthma in emergency departments in Japan: a multicenter observational study.
Little is known about the quality of acute asthma care in emergency departments (EDs) outside of North America. ⋯ The management of acute asthma in Japanese EDs is suboptimal. Greater concordance with guideline-recommended management might reduce unnecessary hospitalizations. Knowledge translation initiatives are warranted to increase adherence with best practice in acute asthma management.
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Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a widespread, but often unidentified, health concern. Understanding distinguishing characteristics of IPV assaults when compared to non-IPV assaults would advance IPV identification in health care settings. ⋯ For both women and men, victims assaulted at home had an elevated risk for IPV. These findings suggest that directed probing for assault incident characteristics - particularly incident location - may be an efficient, effective complement to current IPV screening practices for the busy ED provider. Incident location can be a cue to deepen inquiry about IPV among assault victims.
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Observational Study
Longitudinal trends in the treatment of abdominal pain in an academic emergency department.
Abdominal pain is a top chief complaint of patients presenting to Emergency Departments (ED). Historically, uncertainty surrounded correct management. Evidence has shown adequate analgesia does not obscure the diagnosis, making it the standard of care. ⋯ In patients presenting to the ED with abdominal pain, analgesia administration increased and time to medication decreased during the 10-year period. Despite overall improvements in satisfaction, significant numbers of patients presenting with abdominal pain still reported moderate to severe pain at discharge.
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To examine the effectiveness of a five-level Paediatric Triage and Acuity System (Ped-TTAS) by comparing the reliability of patient prioritisation and resource utilisation with the four-level Paediatric Taiwan Triage System (Ped-TTS) among non-trauma paediatric patients in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ The five-level Ped-TTAS is better able to discriminate paediatric patients by triage acuity in the ED and is also more precise in predicting resource utilisation. The introduction of a more accurate acuity and triage system for use in paediatric emergency care should provide greater patient safety and more timely utilisation of appropriate ED resources.