Articles: emergency-services.
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This article reviews the need for empathy, and what happens in its absence in an acute hospital setting, using the example of a homeless man in an emergency department. Three simple but meaningful changes that all healthcare practitioners can make are recommended to promote empathy.
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Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2023
Observational StudyChildren and Restraints Study in Emergency Ambulance Transport: An Observational Study and Analysis of Current Pediatric Ambulance Transport Practices.
The aims of this study were to identify the pediatric transport methods used by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) personnel in our area and to highlight the need for federal standards to unify prehospital transport of children. ⋯ Our findings confirmed that most pediatric patients transported by EMS are not appropriately secured and are at increased injury in a crash and potentially during normal vehicle operation. Opportunity exists for regulators, industry, and leaders in EMS and pediatrics to develop fiscally and operationally prudent techniques and devices to improve the safety of children in ambulances.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2023
ReviewClosing the miscommunication gap: A user guide to developing picture-based communication tools for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in emergency departments.
To document an illustration-based methodology for culturally safe communication between Indigenous patients and clinicians in an urban ED. ⋯ Co-design methodologies can guide improvements in culturally safe clinical communication with First Nations patients in EDs.
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Pediatric emergency care · Oct 2023
Treatment Guideline Nonadherence Pretransport Associated With Need for Higher Level of Care in Children Transferred to a Pediatric Tertiary Care Center for Status Epilepticus.
We sought to investigate the association between adherence to the American Epilepsy Society (AES) 2016 guidelines for management of convulsive status epilepticus (SE) and clinical outcomes among children requiring interhospital transport for SE. We hypothesized that pretransport guideline nonadherence would be associated with needing higher level of care posttransfer. ⋯ Guideline nonadherence pretransport was associated with longer hospitalizations and need for higher level of care among children transferred for SE at our institution. These findings suggest a need to improve SE guideline adherence through multifaceted quality improvement efforts targeting both the prehospital and community hospital settings.
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Emerg Med Australas · Oct 2023
Choosing Wisely audit: Blood gas ordering in the emergency department.
Our aim was to reduce unnecessary blood gases to improve patient flow, reduce false positives and reduce unnecessary treatments. ⋯ We have found that many blood gases are ordered for patients who are not critically unwell, and whose disposition was not affected by their result.