BACKGROUND A criteria-based nationwide Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) system was recently implemented in Denmark. We described the system and studied its ability to triage patients according to the severity of their condition by analysing hospital admission and case-fatality risks. METHODS This was a register-based follow-up study of all 1-1-2 calls in a 6-month period that were triaged acc...

Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia managed by emergency and acute general physicians. There is increasing evidence that selected patients with acute atrial fibrillation can be safely managed in the emergency department without the need for hospital admission. Meanwhile, there is significant variation in the current emergency management of acute atrial fibrillation. This r...

The goal of this study is to understand how different admission statuses of varying degrees of restrictiveness (informal, voluntary, emergency admission, and involuntary admission on medical certification) are used in the psychiatric emergency room. The study included 656 consecutively admitted patients from a psychiatric emergency room over 28 months. Data were analyzed univariately and using ...

OBJECTIVES The high volume of emergency admissions to hospital is a challenge for health systems internationally. Patients with lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are frequently admitted to hospital as emergency cases. While the frequency of emergency admission has been investigated, few studies report patient experiences, particularly in relation to the decision-makin...

background: to identify and analyze factors that influence the grading and zoning management model of emergency triage as a first step in the improvement of the system. methods: questionnaires were used to extract data from clinical histories of 286 patients who attended the emergency department of binzhou central hospital (binzhou city, shandong province, china) from september to november of 2...

OBJECTIVE To determine the subsequent pattern of emergency admissions in older people with a history of frequent emergency admissions. DESIGN Analysis of routine admissions data from NHS hospitals using hospital episode statistics (HES) in England. SUBJECTS Individual patients aged > or = 65, > or = 75, and > or = 85 who had at least two emergency admissions in 1997-8. MAIN OUTCOME MEASUR...

OBJECTIVE To ascertain if the use of a paediatric oral rehydration protocol in the emergency department changed rates of admission, total time spent in hospital, total time spent in the emergency department, or number of unscheduled returns to the emergency department. METHODS A two month time period was analysed before and then after the adoption of an oral rehydration protocol for children ...

BACKGROUND Some emergency admissions can be avoided if acute exacerbations of health problems are managed by the range of health services providing emergency and urgent care. AIM To identify system-wide factors explaining variation in age sex adjusted admission rates for conditions rich in avoidable admissions. DESIGN National ecological study. SETTING 152 emergency and urgent care system...