PROBLEM/CONDITION Although they are infrequent, acute chemical incidents (i.e., uncontrolled or illegal release or threatened release of hazardous substances lasting <72 hours) with mass casualties or extraordinary levels of damage or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, and economy occur, and thousands of less damaging chemical incidents occur annually. Su...

BACKGROUND In countries with low hepatitis A (HA) endemicity, infected food handlers are the source of most reported foodborne outbreaks. In Canada, accessible data repositories of infected food handler incidents are not available. We undertook a systematic review of such incidents to evaluate the extent of viral transmission through food contamination and the scope of post-exposure prophylaxis...

• Violent incidents committed against Aboriginal people were more likely to be perpetrated by someone who was known to the victim (56%), such as a relative, friend, neighbour or acquaintance, compared to violent incidents committed against non-Aboriginal victims (41%). Aboriginal people were victimized by a stranger in 25% of all violent incidents, compared to 45% of incidents committed against...

The Institute of Medicine's Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness for Catastrophic Events hosted a workshop at the request of the Federal Interagency Committee on Emergency Medical Services (FICEMS) that brought together a range of stakeholders to broadly identify and confront gaps in rural infrastructure that challenge mass casualty incident (MCI) response and potential mechanisms to...

In some circumstances, burn care must be delivered in a simple manner without the luxury of modern resources. Such circumstances include care in low- and middle-income countries, war zones, and mass casualty incidents. Triage decisions need to be made carefully, allowing the focus of limited personnel and equipment on those most likely to survive. Simple techniques can be used to help many burn...

BACKGROUND To assess the pattern of mass casualty incidents managed at our hospital over the last eight years, and evolve a differentiating classification based on this pattern. A combination of retrospective and prospective assessment was made. MATERIAL AND METHODS All patients receiving injuries in mass casualty incidents and managed at our hospital. Patients with an injury severity score a...

INTRODUCTION Information technology (IT) plays a pivotal role in improving patient safety, but can also cause new problems for patient safety. This study analyzed the nature and consequences of a large sample of IT-related medication incidents, as reported by healthcare professionals in community pharmacies and hospitals. METHODS The medication incidents submitted to the Dutch central medicat...

OBJECTIVE To describe cardiac surgery-related incidents and compare the types and severity of incidents occurring in the operating room (OR) versus non-OR locations. We hypothesized that the type and severity of incidents in cardiac surgery would differ in the OR compared with non-OR locations. DESIGN A retrospective cross-sectional study of all incidents categorized as cardiac surgery in the...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the incidence and characteristics of adverse events (AEs) and no-harm events (NHEs) in critically ill patients. DESIGN Observational, prospective, 24-h cross-sectional study with self-reporting. SETTING Seventy-nine intensive care units at 76 hospitals. MEASUREMENTS Number of events, risk of AEs and NHEs, types of incidents, severity and avoidability of incidents. ...

Abstract Police officers are frequently exposed to critical and potentially traumatic incidents in their work. Exposure (CI) policing is associated with an increased risk of developing mental health problems, particular post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the definitions understandings police-specific CI vary extensively. The present qualitative study aimed enhance our understanding core c...