Articles: emergency-medical-services.
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Multicenter Study
Assessment of the status of resources for essential trauma care in Hanoi and Khanh Hoa, Vietnam.
The World Health Organization and the International Association for Trauma Surgery and Intensive Care have published the Guidelines for Essential Trauma Care. This provides recommendations for the human and physical resources needed to provide an adequate, essential level of trauma care services in countries at all economic levels worldwide. We sought to use this set of recommendations as a basis to assess the trauma care capabilities in two locations in Vietnam and thus to identify affordable and sustainable methods to strengthen trauma care nationwide. ⋯ This study has identified several low-cost ways in which to strengthen trauma care in Vietnam. These include greater use of continuing education courses for trauma care and more attention to trauma related curriculum in schools of medicine and nursing. These also include defining and assuring the availability of a core set of essential trauma related equipment and supplies. A policy recommendation that follows from the above findings is the need for programs to strengthen the organization and planning for trauma care.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
International comparison of prehospital trauma care systems.
Given the recent emphasis on developing prehospital trauma care globally, we embarked upon a multicentre study to compare trauma patients' outcome within and between countries with technician-operated advanced life support (ALS) and physician-operated (Doc-ALS) emergency medical service (EMS) systems. These environments represent the continuum of prehospital care in high income countries with more advanced prehospital trauma care systems. ⋯ These findings suggest that prehospital trauma care systems that dispatch a physician to the scene may be associated with lower early trauma fatality rates, but not necessarily with significantly better outcomes on other clinical measures. The reasons for these findings deserve further studies.
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Multicenter Study
Pain in the emergency department: results of the pain and emergency medicine initiative (PEMI) multicenter study.
Pain is the most common reason for emergency department (ED) use, and oligoanalgesia in this setting is known to be common. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations has revised standards for pain management; however, the impact of these regulatory changes on ED pain management practice is unknown. This prospective, multicenter study assessed the current state of ED pain management practice. After informed consent, patients aged 8 years and older with presenting pain intensity scores of 4 or greater on an 11-point numerical rating scale completed structured interviews, and their medical records were abstracted. Eight hundred forty-two patients at 20 US and Canadian hospitals participated. On arrival, pain intensity was severe (median, 8/10). Pain assessments were noted in 83% of cases; however, reassessments were uncommon. Only 60% of patients received analgesics that were administered after lengthy delays (median, 90 minutes; range, 0 to 962 minutes), and 74% of patients were discharged in moderate to severe pain. Of patients not receiving analgesics, 42% desired them; however, only 31% of these patients voiced such requests. We conclude that ED pain intensity is high, analgesics are underutilized, and delays to treatment are common. Despite efforts to improve pain management practice, oligoanalgesia remains a problem for emergency medicine. ⋯ Despite the frequency of pain in the emergency department, few studies have examined this phenomenon. This study documents high pain intensity and suboptimal pain management practices in a large multicenter ED network in the United States and Canada. These findings suggest that there is much room for improvement in this area.
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Multicenter Study Controlled Clinical Trial
Advanced life support for out-of-hospital respiratory distress.
Respiratory distress is a common symptom of patients transported to hospitals by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. The benefit of advanced life support for such patients has not been established. ⋯ The addition of a specific regimen of out-of-hospital advanced-life-support interventions to an existing EMS system that provides basic life support was associated with a decrease in the rate of death of 1.9 percentage points among patients with respiratory distress.
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Multicenter Study
[Management of patients with severe head injury in Hungary, in 2002].
In Hungary, epidemiological and clinical data regarding brain injury were rather scarce. The Hungarian Society for Neurotrauma aimed to make a nation-wide study about the number and the mortality of patients with severe head trauma, the organization of management, the diagnostics and monitoring in use, and finally about the clinical practice of management. A national survey was carried out with questionnaires asking about data of 2001, and a prospective, three-month-long data collection based on case studies was also executed in 2002. ⋯ These data showed much worse outcome than those published in Western European countries and North America. In the background the authors found communication disorder between prehospital and hospital care, extreme long time spent until the patients got to the first CT-exam and to the definitive care. The implementation of Hungarian and international head trauma guidelines did not spread widely.