scholarly journals A three year prospective audit of 212 presentations to the emergency department after electrical injury with a management protocol

2002 ◽  
Vol 78 (919) ◽  
pp. 283-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
N Blackwell
2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Anne Wilkins ◽  
Chevis N. Shannon ◽  
Steven T. Brown ◽  
E. Haley Vance ◽  
Drew Ferguson ◽  
...  

Object Recent legislation and media coverage have heightened awareness of concussion in youth sports. Previous work by the authors' group defined significant variation of care in management of children with concussion. To address this variation, a multidisciplinary concussion program was established based on a uniform management protocol, with emphasis on community outreach via traditional media sources and the Internet. This retrospective study evaluates the impact of standardization of concussion care and resource utilization before and after standardization in a large regional pediatric hospital center. Methods This retrospective study included all patients younger than 18 years of age evaluated for sports-related concussion between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2011. Emergency department, sports medicine, and neurosurgery records were reviewed. Data collected included demographics, injury details, clinical course, Sports Concussion Assessment Tool-2 (SCAT2) scores, imaging, discharge instructions, and referral for specialty care. The cohort was analyzed comparing patients evaluated before and after standardization of care. Results Five hundred eighty-nine patients were identified, including 270 before standardization (2007–2011) and 319 after standardization (2011–2012). Statistically significant differences (p < 0.0001) were observed between the 2 groups for multiple variables: there were more girls, more first-time concussions, fewer initial presentations to the emergency department, more consistent administration of the SCAT2, and more consistent supervision of return to play and return to think after adoption of the protocol. Conclusions A combination of increased public awareness and legislation has led to a 5-fold increase in the number of youth athletes presenting for concussion evaluation at the authors' center. Establishment of a multidisciplinary clinic with a standardized protocol resulted in significantly decreased institutional resource utilization and more consistent concussion care for this growing patient population.


1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (S1) ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
William C. Shoemaker

Clinical management is exceedingly difficult to evaluate in emergency patients because resuscitation is often chaotic, disorderly, and frantic. Resuscitation depends upon many factors: the primary illness or injury, the amount of blood and fluid losses, the patient's age, the prior state of health, the associated medical conditions, the time delay in instituting therapy, the volume and rate of fluids administered, and, finally, the choice of fluids given. Although it is difficult to control the effects of these complex interrelated factors, their influence may be evaluated by stratifying patients and then comparing the direct effects and outcome measures within each stratum.There has been persistent controversy over the relative merits of crystalloids and colloids in fluid resuscitation. We studied reviews of fluid management of all hypotensive patients seen in the adult surgical section of the Emergency Department (ED) during a 2½ year period, to compare the conventional crystalloid resuscitation which had been standard for this busy university-run county hospital with a fluid management protocol consisting of about 1/4 A colloids depending on age, cardiac history, and CVP.


CJEM ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (S1) ◽  
pp. S80-S80
Author(s):  
T. Hawkins ◽  
S. K. Dowling ◽  
D. Wang ◽  
A. Mahajan ◽  
A. Mageau ◽  
...  

Introduction: Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP), including preeclampsia, can develop or worsen in the early postpartum period, often following discharge from hospital, resulting in severe preventable maternal morbidity and mortality. Due to a lack of routine early out-patient follow-up, many women with postpartum HDP present to the emergency department (ED) with severe hypertension or symptoms of preeclampsia (e.g., headache). In the ED, postpartum HDP can be difficult for clinicians to recognize (due to vague presenting symptom) and manage (due to lower blood pressure targets and concern of medication safety). ED clinicians recognized a need for timely recognition and effective treatments for postpartum HDP in the ED to improve maternal outcomes. As such, as part of a multi-step quality improvement initiative, an interdisciplinary team developed and implemented a postpartum HDP management protocol (consisting of nursing and physician protocols and an electronic order set embedded in the electronic medical record). The aims of this specific project were to assess: 1) the use of this clinical management protocol in the ED; and 2) its impacts on clinical care. Methods: This quality improvement project used electronic medical records to identify: 1) ED visits for postpartum HDP for postpartum women ages 20-50; 2) utilization of the postpartum HDP order set; and 3) clinical care outcomes (consultation and admission). Patient population characteristics and clinical care measures were summarized with descriptive statistics and compared using a before and after design. Changes in the utilization of the protocol were assessed using run charts. Results: 540 women with postpartum HDP were seen in the four Calgary EDs in the 16-month period following protocol implementation compared with 335 women in the preceding 12 months. The protocol was used in 46% of these 540 women, and increased over the 16 month follow-up period. We found an increase in the frequency of consultation of specialists (47% to 52%) and admissions (26% to 29%) amongst these women after protocol implementation. Conclusion: This initial assessment demonstrated good uptake of a postpartum HDP management protocol including referral for consultation and admission to hospital for blood pressure management. Future steps include evaluation of the impacts of this management protocol on important patient outcomes.


2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 607-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael T.H. Wong ◽  
Michael T.H. Wong ◽  
Christine Tye

Objective: To study how the standard management protocol and the special management contract relate to the clinical profile of patients with borderline personality disorder and their hospital admission pattern. Method: A retrospective review was undertaken using naturalistic data from the Client Management Interface over a 2-year period. The standard management protocol patient group and the special treatment contract patient group were compared with respect to variables which included basic demographic data, number of admissions, length of stay and comorbidity. Results: Eighty patients received a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. The majority (81.2%) were managed with the standard management protocol and only 41.5% had more than one admission. For those who received a special treatment contract (18.8%), 93.3% of them had more than one admission. The special treatment contract group had a significantly higher total number of admissions (p<0.001), a higher number of admissions when they received (p<0.001) and did not receive (p=0.001) a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, a higher number of comorbidities (p=0.004) but not more presentations to the emergency department. Conclusions: Most patients with borderline personality disorder treated with the standard management protocol had a low readmission rate. The small group of patients with comorbidities managed with a special treatment contract had multiple readmissions but not more crisis presentations to the emergency department. Further studies are required to elucidate the therapeutic mechanism of the standard management protocol and special treatment contract and how that impacts on presentations and admissions to a hospital.


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