Articles: emergency-services.
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This retrospective study is a review of patients referred from a network of eight freestanding emergency centers FECs to a hospital emergency department during January and February 1984. During that time, 17,387 patients were seen at the FECs. Sixty-three (0.36%) of these patients were referred to the base hospital, of which 28 (44%) were admitted and six (9.5%) were admitted to a critical care unit. ⋯ Of the patients discharged from the hospital 70% were satisfied with FEC and 97% with hospital treatment. Of admitted patients, 89% were satisfied with FEC and 100% were satisfied with hospital treatment. For a similar illness in the future, 23% of all patients would return to a FEC, 28% would go to a private practitioner, and 48% would go directly to a hospital.
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Computer-aided teaching in the emergency department offers an important adjunct to traditional lectures and bedside clinical teaching. Using an integrated software system, lessons and patient simulations were created for the emergency department. ⋯ Acceptance and usage rates are high and remain so even after the initial novelty of the system declined. To be useful, such a system should be accessible over extended hours, and lessons should be brief and simple to execute.
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Sources of ionizing radiation are being used with increasing frequency in a wide spectrum of applications in society. These uses are accompanied by the possible occurrence of accidents resulting in persons exposed to radiation and contaminated with radioactivity. ⋯ Planning should include identification of a radiation emergency area within the hospital, delineation of a radiation emergency response team of individuals knowledgeable about radiation and radioactivity, and development of protocols for the medical care and decontamination of patients involved in radiation accidents. Various agencies, including the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, have stressed the need for preparation and periodic testing of radiation emergency response plans for hospitals.