Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Multicenter Study
17 Exploring ambulance conveyances to the emergency department: a descriptive analysis of non-urgent transports.
An NHS England report highlighted key issues in how patients were initially navigating access to healthcare. This has manifested in increased pressure on ambulance services and emergency departments (EDs) to provide high quality, safe and efficient services to manage this demand. This study aims to identify non-urgent conveyances by ambulance services to the ED that would be suitable for care at scene or an alternative response. ⋯ 16% of ambulance conveyances to ED in 2014 were non-urgent with around 1 in 3 patients under the age of 34 conveyed with non-urgent complaints. 1 in 5 patients had a non-urgent conveyance out of hours. AMPDS analysis identified target areas for intervention including referrals from other healthcare providers. Final ED diagnosis identified specific patient target areas including minor illness and alcohol intoxication.emermed;34/12/A872-a/F2F2F2Figure 2emermed;34/12/A872-a/F3F3F3Figure 3Age of patients taken to ED by ambulance (avoidable).
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Recent events involving a significant number of casualties have emphasised the importance of appropriate preparation for receiving hospitals, especially Emergency Departments, during the initial response phase of a major incident. Development of a mass casualty resilience and response framework in the Northern Trauma Network included a review of existing planning assumptions in order to ensure effective resource allocation, both in local receiving hospitals and system-wide.Existing planning assumptions regarding categorisation by triage level are generally stated as a ratio for P1:P2:P3 of 25%:25%:50% of the total number of injured survivors. This may significantly over-, or underestimate, the number in each level of severity in the case of a large-scale incident. ⋯ Despite the heterogeneity of data and range of incident type there is sufficient evidence to suggest that current planning assumptions are incorrect and a more refined model is required. An important finding is the variation in proportion of critical cases depending upon the mechanism. For example, a greater than expected proportion results from incidents involving a building fire whereas the existing model may over-estimate critical caseload in more 'conventional' incidents such as a transportation accident or even in terrorism-related incidents.A new model suggesting the proportions of casualties expected by severity categorisation and incident type is shown in table 2. A more detailed investigation is planned to further refine and develop this model.emermed;34/12/A865-a/T1F1T1Table 1emermed;34/12/A865-a/T2F2T2Table 2.
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Multicenter Study
50 How can informal support impact child PTSD symptoms following a psychological trauma?
An estimated 20% of children who present to hospital emergency departments following potentially traumatic events (e.g., serious injuries, road traffic accidents, assaults) will develop post-traumatic stress disorder as a consequence. The development of PTSD can have a substantial impact on a child's developmental trajectory, including their emotional, social and educational wellbeing. Despite this, only a small proportion will access mental health services, with the majority relying on informal sources of support. Parents, in particular, are often the primary source of support. However, it remains unclear what types of parental responses may be effective, and parents themselves report experiencing uncertainty about the best approach. To address this gap in knowledge, we examined the capacity for specific aspects of parental responding in the aftermath of child trauma to facilitate or hinder children's psychological recovery. ⋯ Findings indicate that children's social support can influence their post-trauma psychological outcomes. That parenting was associated with 6 month PTSD, even after controlling for the child's initial symptoms, suggests that parenting responses in the posttrauma period actively influence the child's poorer longer-term adjustment, rather than simply being a response to the child's initial distress. The results suggest that helping parents to provide fewer negative appraisals about the trauma/their child's response, and to encourage more adaptive coping styles, could be effective in improving child psychological outcomes. As emergency departments provide primary care and support for families affected by trauma, they could play an important role in making this advice available to parents.
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Observational Study
Evaluating an admission avoidance pathway for children in the emergency department: outpatient intravenous antibiotics for moderate/severe cellulitis.
Children with moderate/severe cellulitis requiring intravenous antibiotics are usually admitted to hospital. Admission avoidance is attractive but there are few data in children. We implemented a new pathway for children to be treated with intravenous antibiotics at home and aimed to describe the characteristics of patients treated on this pathway and in hospital and to evaluate the outcomes. ⋯ Children with uncomplicated cellulitis may be able to avoid hospital admission via a home intravenous pathway. This approach has the potential to provide cost and other benefits of home treatment.
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Recent studies suggest that approximately one per thousand paediatric ED attendances may require some sort of critical procedure, with intubation being by far the most common. It is unknown how often critical non-airway procedures such as chest decompression, CPR, ED thoracotomy, defibrillation, pacing, and advanced vascular access techniques are performed by paediatric emergency clinicians. ⋯ More than half of the paediatric emergency clinicians surveyed had performed CPR and inserted an intraosseous needle within the last 12 months. Performance of other non-airway critical procedures was less common, and associated with less procedural confidence.