Articles: emergency-medicine.
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Pediatric emergency care · Dec 2024
Use of Emergency Telemedicine Physicians for Telephone Triage Disposition of Pediatric Patients.
Telemedicine is a growing field, with limited data around its utility supporting pediatric emergency care telephone triage. We instituted telemedicine physician support for nurse telephone triage decisions. When the nursing protocols recommended urgent or emergent care, a telemedicine physician reviewed and modified care urgency if appropriate. Our primary study objectives were to evaluate the proportion of patients who were downgraded to less urgent care and assess for potential harm related to the downgrade in care urgency. ⋯ Our data suggests that telemedicine physicians can safely downgrade nurse triage care recommendations for pediatric patients. Most downgraded patients sought outpatient care, avoiding unnecessary utilization of the emergency department without evidence of associated harm.
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Pediatric emergency care · Dec 2024
Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physicians' Perspectives of Concussion in Young Children.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) during early childhood (before 6 years) is prevalent, accounting for rising rates of emergency department visits. These injuries may lead to postconcussive symptoms, which may be subtle and difficult to diagnose in young children. Inadequate discharge counseling may lead to prolonged duration of symptoms and possible developmental delays. We aimed to explore pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) physicians' perspectives on "concussion" terminology, diagnosis, and management, specifically in a young child with mild TBI. ⋯ Variability exists among PEM physicians in diagnosis and management of concussions in young children. Discomfort with lack of reliability of symptoms and underappreciation of typical early childhood characteristics may account for findings. Educational initiatives, age-appropriate clinical tools and treatment-guided outcomes research are needed to guide PEM physicians in the care of young children with head injuries.
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Hospitals, being establishments with varying functions and capacities, must have disaster plans that reduce vulnerability, ensure the continuity, and possibly increase the capacity of healthcare services; these measures are crucial for reducing mortality and facilitating the normalization of life after a disaster. In this study, the aim was to analyze the operational process of the disaster management plan at Dicle University Faculty of Medicine Hospital following the earthquake in Kahramanmaraş on 6 February 2023. ⋯ The earthquake highlighted the importance of disaster preparedness in hospitals for effective patient care, collaboration among disciplines, and resource management. Detailed data on the hospital's disaster plan and its operational process during the earthquake were provided to underscore its critical role in managing the crisis. Lessons learned will shape future disaster response protocols, stressing continual evaluation and improvement in healthcare disaster readiness.
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Background Despite the controversy regarding its clinical utility, the PaO2/FIO2 ratio has been used to define the severity of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This systematic review and meta-analysis (SRMA) details summary estimates of the predictive performance of PaO2/FIO2 ratio in predicting mortality in patients with ARDS. Methods To clarify the integrated diagnostic accuracy, we included studies in which the study population comprised patients with ARDS in any clinical setting, included adult patients (≥18 years old), and evaluated mortality. ⋯ Overall, the risk of bias is high. For PaO2/FIO2 of 100 and 200 the pooled sensitivity, specificity, and AUROC were 44.8% (95% CI, 38.1%-51.7%), 70.6% (95% CI, 65.9%-74.9%), 0.60 (0.58-0.64) and 83.9% (95% CI, 78.9%-87.8%), 26.1% (95% CI, 20.8%-32.1%), 0.64 (0.60-0.69), respectively. Conclusion The PaO2/FIO2 ratio alone did not have impressive prediction accuracy for mortality in patients with ARDS and might not be able to be used solely as a clinical prognostic tool.