Articles: emergency-medical-services.
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In an attempt to establish prognostic indicators for ultimate long-term survival following advanced life support (ALS), a two-year (1978-79) retrospective study was made of 92 survivors. The survivors were divided into two groups: the first survived admission to the intensive care unit, but subsequently died in the hospital; the second survived to ultimate discharge from the hospital. ⋯ This article advances the definition of ultimate survival of ALS to mean discharge of the patient from the hospital, and advocates this as the most objective evaluation of successful ALS. The article furthermore offers duration of ALS as an effective prognostic indicator of a patient's chance for ultimate survival.
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Knowledge of numbers to call for medical emergencies was compared among communities with three different call numbers: 1) 911; 2) regional seven-digit numbers; and 3) local seven-digit numbers. Correct responses were 85 per cent in the 911 communities; 47 per cent in areas with regional systems, and 36 per cent in areas with local systems. Persons living adjacent to a 911 area were more likely to believe 911 was the emergency number (28 per cent) than persons not adjacent to 911 areas (12 per cent).
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Algorithm-directed triage by nonprofessionals was used to safely assign care urgency categories to 22,934 walk-in patients under 13 years of age during 1978. Of all patients, 16.7% were categorized as having urgent or potentially urgent problems at triage. Of those patients admitted, 79.12% received these urgency classifications. ⋯ A total of 11.16% of all patients received a routine or non-urgent classification. No patients admitted had been triaged to this non-urgent classification. As determined by review of records of 91 patients admitted from the acute care facility, the system safely identifies both high- and low-risk walk-in populations.