Articles: emergency-services.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Parental knowledge and use of preventive asthma care measures in two pediatric emergency departments.
Parents of children who visit the pediatric emergency department (PED) for asthma exacerbations may have inadequate knowledge of preventive asthma care. The primary objective of this study was to assess knowledge and use of preventive asthma care measures among parents of children with asthma who present to the PED with asthma exacerbations. The secondary objective was to identify variables that predict adherence to four key preventive care measures. ⋯ Parents of children with persistent asthma presenting to urban tertiary care PEDs with asthma exacerbations frequently have inadequate understanding of appropriate ICS use. Parents with less than a high school education, in particular, may benefit from focused educational interventions that address the importance of daily ICS use in asthma control. Parents who receive a written action plan are more confident in their ability to provide care for their child during an asthma exacerbation.
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Alcohol. Clin. Exp. Res. · Jun 2010
Multicenter StudyThe relationship between self-reported drinking and BAC level in emergency room injury cases: is it a straight line?
While the validity of self-reported consumption based on blood alcohol concentration (BAC) has been found to be high in emergency room (ER) samples, little research exists on the estimated number of drinks consumed given a BAC level. Such data would be useful in establishing a dose-response relationship between drinking and risk (e.g., of injury) in those studies for which the number of drinks consumed is not available but BAC is. ⋯ Future studies may benefit from investigating the factors suspected to be driving the weak relationships between these measures, including the actual time over which the reported alcohol was consumed and pattern of drinking over the consumption period.
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Multicenter Study
The effects of emergency department staff rounding on patient safety and satisfaction.
Two recent inpatient studies documented that regular nursing staff rounding increased patient safety and satisfaction. However, the effect of systematic emergency department (ED) staff rounding on patient safety and satisfaction has not been adequately tested. ⋯ Rounding in the ED reception and treatment areas is effective and improves outcomes. Further research should determine the optimal design for rounding considering the mixed shifts in EDs, seek ways to increase communicating delays to patients, and investigate how to integrate rounding with physician activities.
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To assess the clinical presentation and acute management of patients with transient loss of consciousness (T-LOC) in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Adherence to clinical guidelines for syncope management was low; many diagnostic tests were performed with low diagnostic yield. Important differences were observed between syncope diagnoses at the ED and by SC decision.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Effect of mandated nurse-patient ratios on patient wait time and care time in the emergency department.
The objective was to evaluate the effect of mandated nurse-patient ratios (NPRs) on emergency department (ED) patient flow. ⋯ In these two EDs, throughput measures of WT and EDCT were shorter when the ED nurse staffing were within state-mandated levels, after controlling for ED census and patient acuity.