Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The authors aimed to determine whether certain emergency department (ED) triage "presenting complaint" descriptions are associated with shorter or longer waiting times, when compared with matched controls. ⋯ Waiting times for patients with certain presenting complaints are significantly associated with triage presenting complaint descriptions. It is likely that these descriptions allow EPs to selectively seek or avoid patients with liked or disliked complaints, respectively. The impact of this for patients and ED flow needs investigation.
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The objectives were to compare the proportion of false-positive activations and intervention times between emergency department (ED) and field-based activation of the coronary catheterization laboratory (cath) team for emergency medical services (EMS) patients identified by out-of-hospital (OOH) 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). ⋯ Emergency physician activation of the cath team results in a lower proportion of false-positive activations without clearly sacrificing DTB time when compared to field activation based solely on the results of the OOH ECG.