Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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: In recent years the RVH Emergency Department (ED) had been under intense pressure and public scrutiny. This led to a demoralised workforce who had become disengaged with quality improvement (QI). QI projects had become an exercise in data collection with little focus on improving care for patients. ⋯ We have also increased efficiency with senior review for Ambulance patients and subsequent significant decrease in waiting times. A recent project targeting the waste associated with unnessecary triage blood tests is showing promising early results.emermed;34/12/A880-a/F2F2F2Figure 2The ED improvement team have endeavoured to improve the environment for staff by developing a 'Grrr to Great' board, through which staff are empowered to highlight problems but are also tasked with developing solutions. We have also increased accessibility of QI data by producing a QI update board and displaying data openly and transparently in the department.emermed;34/12/A880-a/F3F3F3Figure 3.
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Triage, the process of prioritising patients on the basis of clinical acuity, is a key principle in the effective management of a major incident. The overall effectiveness of the triage process is not only a balance between identifying those who need or don't need a life-saving intervention, but also those who are under or over-triaged as either incorrectly needing/not needing intervention. The primary aim of this study was to describe the implications of under-triage using existing major incident triage tools, including the 2013 National Ambulance Resilience Unit (NARU) Sieve. The secondary aim was to describe the safety profile of the Modified Physiological Triage Tool (MPTT) in comparison to other triage tools, and to report mortality and identification of serious injury (AIS>3) in discrete AIS body regions. ⋯ During the study period, 2 18 985 adult patients were included with 24 791 (19.5%) identified as Priority One. 70% were male, aged 51 years [33-71], ISS 16 [9-25] with road traffic collision the most common mechanism (34%). The MPTT demonstrated the lowest rate of under-triage (42.4%, p<0.001). Overall 30 day mortality for the Priority One cohort was 12.4%. Compared to existing methods, the MPTT under-triage population had significantly lower mortality (5.7%, p<0.001), identical to the overall study population. Patients under-triaged by the MPTT had significantly lower requirement for intubation, thoracocentesis and massive transfusion than both the NARU Sieve and Triage Sieve (p<0.001). Serious injuries to the thorax (47.0%) and head (27.4%) predominated, with the MPTT again significantly under-triaging fewer of these patients (p<0.001).emermed;34/12/A871-a/F1F1F1Figure 1 CONCLUSION: This study has defined the effects of and compared the implications of under-triage when different triage tools are used in the context of a major trauma population. The MPTT misses fewer severely injured patients, with fewer LSIs necessary in the under-triaged population. We suggest that the MPTT should be considered as an alternative to existing major incident triage tools.emermed;34/12/A871-a/T1F2T1Table 1Frequency of interventions performed in the priority one cohort and patients under-triaged by the MPTT, UK NARU sieve and MIMMS triage sieve2Defined as administration of 4 or more units of blood/blood products 3Defined as craniotomy, burr holes or removal of intracranial haemorrhageemermed;34/12/A871-a/T2F3T2Table 2Frequency of severe injuries (AIS ≥ 3) by body region within the whole study population, the priority one cohort and in those under-triaged by the MPTT, the UK NARU sieve and the MIMMS triage sieve.
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Given low survival rates in cases of traumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), there is a need to identify factors associated with outcomes. We aimed to investigate Utstein factors associated with achieving return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival to hospital in traumatic OHCA. ⋯ Few patient and arrest characteristics were associated with outcomes in traumatic OHCA. These findings suggest there is a need to incorporate additional information into cardiac arrest registries to assist prognostication and the development of novel interventions in these trauma patients.
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"Black Swans", originally described as an economic theory, are unexpected events whose potential to occur only becomes apparent after they have happened. The concept is very relevant to the practice of Emergency Medicine and this article explores how black swans impact on emergency care and how staff unconsciously aim to mitigate against them.