Articles: emergency-services.
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Health services research · Jun 1993
Comparative StudyMeasuring quality of care in psychiatric emergencies: construction and evaluation of a Bayesian index.
This study was conducted to determine whether an index for measuring quality of care for psychiatric emergencies is reliable and valid. ⋯ The study demonstrated that a subjective Bayesian model can be used to develop a reliable and valid index for measuring quality of care, with potential for practical application in management of health services.
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Qual Assur Health Care · Jun 1993
Improving quality in emergency services to reduce hospital admission.
At the Emergency Department of Udine General Hospital (Italy) a programme to reduce admissions to the Internal Medicine Department was introduced in 1991. The majority of these admissions come from the Emergency Department, where many people, often without acute conditions, claim medical care. The programme consisted in organizational, professional and economic changes. ⋯ Finally, examinations for internal medical complaints in the emergency ward, not followed by hospitalization, increased by 15.5%. These results showed a reduction in admissions to the Internal Medicine Department greater than previously planned, with an increase in the number of outpatient examinations in the emergency room not followed by admission. Further targets were planned for 1992 to increase the quality of the service.
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To determine the use pattern of the emergency department by people 65 years of age and older. ⋯ Elderly persons do not misuse the services of the emergency department. They come because they are acutely ill; they are not frequent attenders, and their presenting complaints do require intervention (frequently hospitalization). The study findings are generalizable to the older population in the Hamilton-Wentworth region and raise such questions as whether some hospital admissions could have been avoided by earlier interventions in the community.
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This study aimed to identify qualified nurses' perceptions of the helpfulness of selected nursing actions, derived from the literature, in meeting the needs of suddenly bereaved family members in the accident and emergency (A&E) department. The effect of age, length of professional experience and death education received on the respondents' perceptions was examined. The nurse subjects' feelings of preparation for this stressful role were also identified. ⋯ Analysis of the sample's responses to the 35 nursing actions included revealed that certain activities were ranked lower in terms of their perceived helpfulness, compared to the survivors' perceptions in other studies. All three variables considered had a statistically significant correlation with the perceptions of the sample as measured by the instrument (P < 0.05, using Mann-Whitney U-test). Only 42% of the sample had received any form of death education and 56% felt unprepared for this specialist role.