Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Multicenter Analysis of Transport Destinations For Pediatric Prehospital Patients.
Although all emergency departments (EDs) should be ready to treat children, some may have illnesses or injuries that require higher-level pediatric resources that are not available at all hospitals. There are no national guidelines for emergency medical services (EMS) providers about when to directly transport children to hospitals with higher-level pediatric resources, with the exception of severe trauma. Variability exists in EMS protocols about when children warrant transport to hospitals with higher-level pediatric care. ⋯ EMS providers commonly transport children to hospitals with higher-level pediatric resources. However, more than one-quarter of children with potentially severe injuries and illnesses are transported to general EDs.
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We wanted to estimate the frequency and describe the nature of emergency department (ED) procedural sedation restrictions in the State of California. ⋯ In this statewide survey we found a substantial prevalence of practice limitations-mostly created by local anesthesia directors-that restrict the ability of emergency physicians to provide procedural sedation for their patients in accordance with ACEP guidelines. Deep sedation was prohibited in 18% of responding EDs. Our respondents describe adverse consequences to patient care.