International journal of emergency medicine
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To influence self-referral, it is crucial to know a patient's motives to directly visit the emergency department (ED). The goal of this study is to examine motives for self-referral to the ED and compare these motives in relation to appropriateness. ⋯ The choice of patients to self-refer to an ED is often an explicate decision. Patients are looking for specialist help and want fast and easy access to radiologic and laboratory investigations. Even though the primary care network is well developed in the Netherlands, the reasons for self-referral are similar to the reasons found in previous literature based in other countries. Patients who visit the ED because of health concerns visit the ED more often appropriately than patients visiting for practical reasons.
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Russia's national healthcare system is undergoing significant changes. Those changes which affect healthcare financing are particularly vital. As has often been the case in other nations, the emergency care field is at the forefront of such reforms. ⋯ Preliminary data stemming from their operation have supported a positive effect on efficiency of hospital bed utilization and on appropriate use of specialists and specialized hospital departments. In the pre-hospital domain, there has been a reduction of specialized ambulance types and of the number of physicians staffing all ambulances in favor of midlevel providers. Still, a debate continues at all levels of the medical hierarchy regarding the correct future path for emergency care in Russia with regard to adaptation and sustainability of any foreign models in the context of the country's unique national features.
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As global emergency care grows, practical and effective performance measures are needed to ensure high quality care. Our objective was to systematically catalog and classify metrics that have been used to measure the quality of emergency care in resource-limited settings. ⋯ The published quality metrics in emergency care in resource-limited settings primarily focus on the effectiveness and timeliness of care. As global emergency care is built and strengthened, outcome-based measures and those focused on the safety, efficiency, and equitability of care need to be developed and studied to improve quality of care and resource utilization.