Articles: emergency-services.
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Clinical Trial
Compliance with emergency department referral: the effect of computerized discharge instructions.
To examine the effect of computerized discharge instructions on emergency department patient referral recommendations. ⋯ Computerized discharge instructions were associated with improved compliance with ED referral recommendations, based on historic and contemporary controls.
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To evaluate an emergency department's "treat and transfer" policy during a two-month period of reduced inpatient capacity by determining the number and characteristics of transferred patients not admitted as planned to the receiving hospital. ⋯ Patients transferred from the public hospital ED resulted in admission to the receiving hospital in 92% of transfers. A history of IV drug use was the only characteristic found to be associated with discharge without admission to the accepting hospital.
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Editorial Comparative Study
Clinton's health reform and emergency department volumes: a return visit.
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Clin Perform Qual Health Care · Apr 1993
Hospital-based continuous quality improvement: a realistic appraisal.
To evaluate the impact of a continuous quality improvement (CQI) multidisciplinary team process on emergency department admission times. ⋯ Although CQI is a promising approach to certain quality problems, a number of issues remain to be explored before full-scale implementation in academic centers can be endorsed.
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To estimate (1) the prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection in emergency department (ED) patients, (2) the frequency of blood contact (BC) in ED workers (EDWs), (3) the efficacy of gloves in preventing BC, and (4) the risk of HIV infection in EDWs due to BC. ⋯ In both inner-city and suburban EDs, patient HIV seroprevalence varies with patient demographics and clinical presentation; the infection status of most HIV-positive patients is unknown to ED staff. The risk to an EDW of occupationally acquiring HIV infection varies by ED location and the nature and frequency of BC; this risk can be reduced by adherence to universal precautions.