Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Implementation of a novel communication tool and its effect on patient comprehension of care and satisfaction.
Emergency department (ED) communication has been demonstrated as requiring improvement and ED patients have repeatedly demonstrated poor comprehension of the care they receive. Through patient focus groups, the authors developed a novel tool designed to improve communication and patient comprehension. ⋯ Using their novel communication tool, the authors were not able to show a statistically significant improvement in either comprehension or satisfaction, though a tendency towards improved comprehension was seen.
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A short-cut review was carried out to establish whether pelvic immobilisation with a T-POD, or similar device, or pelvic immobilisation with a wrapped sheet is better at fracture stabilisation. Three papers were relevant to the question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are shown in table 2. The clinical bottom line is that these devices/techniques do reduce and stabilise some fractures, whether one device is better than another is unclear.
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The Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) promotes a bundle approach to the care of septic patients to improve outcome. Some have questioned the capability of delivering the bundle in emergency departments (EDs). The authors report the epidemiology and 6 h bundle compliance of patients with severe sepsis/septic shock presenting to Scottish EDs. ⋯ Sepsis presentations are of variable frequency but have typical epidemiology and clinical outcomes. SSC bundle resuscitation uptake is poor in Scottish EDs.