Articles: emergency-medicine.
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Emerg Med Australas · Feb 2016
Multicenter StudyIs a national time target for emergency department stay associated with changes in the quality of care for acute asthma? A multicentre pre-intervention post-intervention study.
There is debate whether targets for ED length of stay introduced to reduce ED overcrowding are helpful or harmful, as focus on a process target may divert attention from clinical care. Our objective was to investigate the effect of a national ED target in Aotearoa New Zealand on the recommended care for acute asthma as this is known to suffer in overcrowded departments. ⋯ Introduction of the target was not associated with a change in times to steroids in ED, although more patients received steroids in ED indicating closer adherence to recommended practice.
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Multicenter Study
Impact of Age on Pain Perception for Typical Painful Diagnoses in the Emergency Department.
Age-related differences in pain perception have been demonstrated in experimental settings but have been investigated scarcely and without valid scale in the clinical framework. ⋯ Older patients perceive similar pain for dislocation and extremity fractures and less for visceral and headache/migraine pain; however, these age differences may not be clinically important.
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Multicenter Study
Medical Students in the Emergency Department and Patient Length of Stay.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Direct Versus Video Laryngoscopy for Intubating Adult Patients with Gastrointestinal Bleeding.
Video laryngoscopy (VL) has been advocated for several aspects of emergency airway management; however, there are still concerns over its use in select patient populations such as those with large volume hematemesis secondary to gastrointestinal (GI) bleeds. Given the relatively infrequent nature of this disease process, we sought to compare intubation outcomes between VL and traditional direct laryngoscopy (DL) in patients intubated with GI bleeding, using the third iteration of the National Emergency Airway Registry (NEARIII). ⋯ In this national registry of intubations performed in the ED for patients with GI bleeds, both DL and VL had similar rates of success, glottic views and need to change devices.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Direct Observation Assessment of Milestones: Problems with Reliability.
Emergency medicine (EM) milestones are used to assess residents' progress. While some milestone validity evidence exists, there is a lack of standardized tools available to reliably assess residents. Inherent to this is a concern that we may not be truly measuring what we intend to assess. The purpose of this study was to design a direct observation milestone assessment instrument supported by validity and reliability evidence. In addition, such a tool would further lend validity evidence to the EM milestones by demonstrating their accurate measurement. ⋯ The validity and reliability of the current EM milestone assessment tools have yet to be determined. This study is a rigorous attempt to collect validity evidence in the development of a direct observation assessment instrument. However, despite strict attention to validity evidence, inter-rater reliability was low. The potential sources of reducible variance include rater- and instrument-based error. Based on this study, there may be concerns for the reliability of other EM milestone assessment tools that are currently in use.