Articles: emergency-services.
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To determine if stress levels of emergency medical services (EMS) personnel can be reduced by adjusting work schedules to personnel preferences. ⋯ Stress in EMS personnel increased despite a new schedule pattern designed to accommodate the preferences of EMS personnel.
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To determine the response of physicians to a noncoercive prediction rule for the triage of emergency department patients with chest pain. ⋯ The physicians reported that they looked at the prediction rule during the triage of 115 (46%) of the 252 patients. The likelihood of using the prediction rule decreased significantly with increasing level of physician training. The most common reasons given for disregarding the prediction rule were confidence in unaided decision making and lack of time. The physicians reported that of the 115 cases for which the prediction rule was used, only one triage decision (1%) was changed by it. Future research should explore how prediction rules can be designed and implemented to surmount the barriers highlighted by these data.