Violence in the accident and emergency department

Violence in the Accident and Emergency Department.

Crimes of violence are recorded increasingly frequently, including those involving health professionals. We reviewed records of violent incidents kept for a major Accident and Emergency Department over a ten-year period. Details were recorded in a Violent Incident Book by all grades of A/E staff, and separate records were kept by hospital security officers. A total of 407 incidents were recorde...

Audit in the accident and emergency department.

Audit is all about improving patient care. Most clinicians are now familiar with the fundamentals of the audit loop, and the question "what do you understand by clinical audit?" can be relied on to appear in specialist registrar and consultant interviews. At its most simple the auditing process involves a critical appraisal of present performance, followed by a process of standard setting. Pres...

Pediatrics in the accident and emergency department.

When the National Health Service began in 1948 many hospitals, large and small, had casualty departments. These were usually run by experienced and dedicated nursing staff in often inadequate accommodation. Self taught clinical assistants were in overall charge but had inexperienced, often poorly supervised junior medical staff. The departments treated patients, including children, with a wide ...

violence in the emergency department: physicians, medical staff, and patients

[Domestic violence in the accident and emergency department: don't forget the children].

In 2013, the Dutch Government mandated a new policy stating that all healthcare professionals caring for adults in difficult psychosocial situations should always investigate the safety of any children involved. We describe two cases of such 'child checks' in the accident and emergency department (A&E). Patient A, a 10-year-old girl, was referred to the outpatient paediatric department (OPD) af...