Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
Interventions to improve consultations in the emergency department: A systematic review.
Emergency department (ED) consultations with specialists are necessary for safe and effective patient care. Delays in the ED consultation process, however, have been shown to increase ED length of stay (LOS) and contribute to ED crowding. This review aims to describe and evaluate the effectiveness of interventions to improve the ED consultation process. ⋯ The various interventions impacting the consultation process were predominately successful in reducing ED LOS, with evidence suggesting that interventions improving consult responsiveness and improving access to consultants in the ED also improve consult response times. Health care providers looking to implement interventions to improve the ED consultation process should identify key areas in their setting that could be targeted.
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Observational Study
Inter-rater Reliability of the Clinical Frailty Scale by Staff Members in a Swedish Emergency Department Setting.
As frailty among the elderly is receiving increasing attention in emergency departments (EDs) around the world, the use of frailty assessment tools is growing. An often used such tool is the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS), whose inter-rater reliability has been sparingly investigated in ED settings. No inter-rater reliability study regarding CFS has previously been performed within the Scandinavian ED context. The primary aim of this study was to evaluate the inter-rater reliability of the CFS in a Swedish ED setting. ⋯ The CFS appears to have a moderate to good inter-rater reliability when used in a clinical ED setting. When guiding clinical decisions, we advise that the CFS score should be discussed within the team. Further research needs to be performed on the accuracy of clinical judgment to identify frailty in ED patients.
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Review Case Reports
A Systematic Review of the Effectiveness and Safety of Droperidol for Pediatric Agitation in Acute Care Settings.
Agitation in children in acute care settings poses significant patient and staff safety concerns. While behavioral approaches are central to reducing agitation and oral medications are preferred, parenteral medications are used when necessary to promote safety. The goal of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of an ultra-short-acting parenteral medication, droperidol, for the management of acute, severe agitation in children in acute care settings. ⋯ Existing data on droperidol for management of acute agitation in children suggest that droperidol is both effective and safe for acute, severe agitation in children. Data are limited by study designs that may introduce bias.
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Massive blood transfusion (MBT) following older adult trauma poses unique challenges. Despite extensive evidence on optimal resuscitative strategies in the younger adult patients, there is limited research in the older adult population. ⋯ Compared to all other ratios, the 1:1 FFP:pRBC ratio had the lowest 24-h and 30-day mortality following older adult trauma consistent with findings in the younger adult population.
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Cluster surveillance, identification, and containment are primary outbreak management techniques; however, adapting these for low- and middle-income countries is an ongoing challenge. We aimed to evaluate the utility of prehospital call center ambulance dispatch (CCAD) data for surveillance by examining the correlation between influenza-like illness (ILI)-related dispatch calls and COVID-19 cases. ⋯ The statistically significant time series correlation between ILI calls and COVID-19 cases suggests prehospital CCAD can be part of early warning systems aiding outbreak cluster surveillance, identification, and containment.