Articles: emergency-services.
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Hosp Community Psychiatry · Nov 1993
Police referral to psychiatric emergency services and its effect on disposition decisions.
Some clinicians and researchers have questioned the appropriateness of police referrals to psychiatric emergency services and have suggested that police exercise undue influence on hospital admission decisions. The purpose of this study was to test these assertions. ⋯ Police did not exercise undue influence on dispositions nor were the patients they brought in more "criminal" than others.
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Minerva anestesiologica · Nov 1993
Comparative Study[Management of head injury patients seen in Urgent Care].
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The aim of this study was to look at the influence of homelessness on acute medical admissions. A prospective case-controlled study was therefore performed on all homeless children admitted through the accident and emergency department over one year, comparing them with the next age matched admission from permanent housing. Assessments made were: whether homelessness or other social factors influenced the doctors' decision to admit; differences in severity of illness; length of stay; and use of primary care. ⋯ Referral to the hospital was made by a general practitioner in only 5/50 (10%) of homeless compared with 18/50 (36%) of controls. Social factors were an important influence on the decision to admit in over three quarters of the homeless children and resulted in admission when less severely ill even when compared with admissions from an inner city population. Even though there was marked social deprivation among the homeless families, the decision to admit was based on vague criteria that need to be further refined.