Prisoners seeking healthcare in emergency department

Author(s):  
Bedriye Muge Sonmez ◽  
Fevzi Yilmaz ◽  
Murat Dogan Iscanli ◽  
Cihat Yel ◽  
Ali Demir ◽  
...  

Abstract Objectives: To evaluate inmate referrals to emergency department of a tertiary healthcare facility in terms of demographical and clinical characteristics as well as their impact on the department. Method: The retrospective cross-sectional study was conducted at Ankara Numune Training and Research Hospital, Ankara, Turkey, and comprised data of incarcerated patients who were brought to the emergency department from January 01, 2010, to December 31, 2012. . Demographical characteristics, consultations, duration of hospitalisation, recurrent admissions, disposal and mortality rates were noted. The referrals were grouped as surgical conditions, medical disorders, Eye, Ear, Nose, Throat problems, injury and psychiatric disorders. The groups were then subdivided according to diagnosis. SPSS 22 was used for data analysis. Results: Of the 856 patients, 804(93.4%) were men and 52(6.1%) were women. The overall mean age was 37.54±14.81 years (range: 15-83 years). The number of patients was the highest in the medical group 363(42.4%) and the lowest in the Eye, Ear, Nose, Throat group 56(6.5%). Mean age of the surgical group was significantly lower than the medical group (p<0.001) but significantly higher than that of the trauma group (p=0.001). Conclusion: Functional emergency response units, strict emergency triage of inmates, and their rapid care and management in jails can help avoid referring these patients to already overcrowded emergency departments. Key Words: Prisoners, Healthcare, Emergency department.

Author(s):  
Maram Mohammed Jaboua ◽  
Warif Jameel Abdulhaq ◽  
Nada Saeed Almuntashiri ◽  
Sarah Saud Almohammdi ◽  
Asayel Qeblan Aldajani ◽  
...  

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to a devastating impact on emergency departments worldwide, resulting in a global crisis with various health consequences. We aimed to evaluate this impact on an emergency department (ED) visit of critical conditions such as Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS), Cerebrovascular accident (CVA), Sepsis and Febrile neutropenia (FN), and to assess the quality of the ED after new adaptive measures were applied. Methods: This is a comparative cross-sectional study to assess the number of patients who presented to the ED of King Abdullah Medical city with the specified diagnosis. We collected data via the E-medical records. We compared the data over three periods pre-lockdown, lockdown and post lockdown in years 2019-2021. For quality measurement, Adaa (Ministry of Health's program) was used to calculate the percentage of patients who stayed 4 hours or less in the ED. Results: The total number of ED visits in the specified periods of study was 8387. The total numbers of patients for 2019, 2020, and 2020 respectively were 2011 (, ACS 70.4%, CVA 16.3%, sepsis and FN 13.3%.), 2733 (ACS 73.1%, CVA 9.9%, sepsis and FN 17.0%), and 3643 (ACS 64.0%, CVA 19.4%, sepsis and FN 16.7). The average percentage of patients who stayed 4 hours or less in the ED was 60% and 57.5% for 2020 and 2021, respectively. Conclusion: Although we expected reductions in ED visits during COVID-19 periods, we found that visits were rising through the years 2019-2021.


2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (4-4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Wan Malissa Wan Mohd Aminuddin ◽  
Wan Rosmanira Ismail ◽  
Husyairi Harunarashid ◽  
Raymond Azman Ali ◽  
Ismail Mohd Saiboon ◽  
...  

An emergency department (ED) is a front door for a hospital where a huge number of patients visit the department to seek immediate treatment. This has led to ED overcrowding. A cross sectional study was conducted to determine the pattern of patients attending the ED in a public teaching hospital in Malaysia. 2013 daily census data contained 66,603 patients were used. In this study, 62.1% of ED attendances are non-critical case. They commonly utilized the ED in the early morning, during weekends, and early part of the week. In conclusion, non-critical patients are seen to be the most frequent ED users. They are commonly present at the ED with minor problems. Hence, ED management should implement various solving methods in order to educate such people regarding the real functions of an ED.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph O. Fadare ◽  
Abimbola Margaret Obimakinde ◽  
Felix O. Aina ◽  
Ebisola J. Araromi ◽  
Theophilus Adekunle Adegbuyi ◽  
...  

Background: The use of drugs with anticholinergic effects among elderly patients is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. There is paucity of information about anticholinergic drug burden among Nigerian elderly population.Objectives: To determine the anticholinergic drug burden among elderly Nigerian patients.Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study conducted among elderly patients (aged 65 and above) who visited the Family Medicine outpatients’ clinics of the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital, Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria between July 1 and October 31, 2018. Information extracted from the case files included patient’s age, sex, diagnoses, and list of prescribed medications. Medicines with anticholinergic effects were identified and scored using the anticholinergic drug burden calculator (http://www.acbcalc.com).Results: The medical records of 400 patients were analyzed with females accounting for 60.5% of the study population. The mean age of participants was 73 ± 7.4 years with only 28 (7%) of patients having more than two co-morbid conditions. Polypharmacy was identified in 152 (38%) of the patients while 147 (36.7%) had drugs with anticholinergic effects prescribed. The anticholinergic burden was high in 60 (15%) patients. Polypharmacy was significantly associated with having more than two diagnosed conditions and high anticholinergic burden (p value of &lt; 0 .001 and 0.013 respectively). There was significant correlation between total number of prescribed drugs and count of diagnoses (r = 0.598; p &lt; 0 .000) and between total number of prescribed drugs and number of drugs with anticholinergic effects (r = 0 .196; p &lt; 0 .000).Conclusion: The anticholinergic burden in this group of elderly Nigerian patients was low; majority (67%) had no exposure to drugs with anticholinergic effects with only 15% having high anticholinergic burden. Polypharmacy and multiple diagnosed conditions were positively associated with high anticholinergic burden. Based on the positive and significant correlations found in this study, a reduction in the number of prescribed medicines especially those with significant anticholinergic effects used for secondary indications may lessen the anticholinergic burden among the elderly.


Author(s):  
Emmanuel N. Omoijiade ◽  
Lucky Evbuomwan

Background: Generally, personal protective equipment (PPE) should be used by healthcare workers, as they provide a physical barrier between hazards and the wearer. Exposure to occupational hazards in the laundry can be limited by the use of PPE such as barrier gowns, gloves, eyewear, foot coverings and face masks. This study provides information on the PPE compliance of the workers at the laundry, as this would prove useful in order to establish appropriate interventions to minimize occupational risks of workers in the healthcare laundries.Methods: This study was a comparative cross-sectional study. It was conducted in six hospitals with a laundry department in Benin-city, composed of one available tertiary healthcare facility and five secondary healthcare facilities. Questionnaire was administered to the workers concerning the availability and use of PPE.Results: The common PPE used were nose masks (7.9%), hand gloves (39.5%), safety boots (3.6%) and coveralls (84.5%). Respondents revealed that eye goggles or face shields and ear plugs or muffs were never provided for them.Conclusions: Compliance of respondents to PPE was not at an optimally recommended level. It is recommended that efforts be made to ensure that workers comply with PPE use, while providing all necessary protective equipment, which should first be assessed before selection and use.


1970 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 14-17
Author(s):  
YL Shakya ◽  
R Acharya ◽  
MP Gupta ◽  
MR Banjara ◽  
PR Prasad

Introduction: Self-harm forms a significant proportion of patient attending in emergency departments, typically 10-30 per 100000 people commit suicide annually. The objective of this study was to find out the factors responsible for self harm. Methods: This is a cross sectional study of 100 patients of self harm coming to Emergency Department of Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital from 1stOctober 2007 to 31stMarch, 2008. Questionnaire about demographic information of patient along with details about cause of self harm, and any other illnesses associated was filled. Information about duration of arrival in emergency department, place of self harm was gathered. Patients were clinically examined and hematological and biochemical tests including liver function test and the type of poison used and its level in blood were examined. Results: Total number of patients with self harm was 100 (female - 71%; male- 29%).Among female, 16-30 years age group to be the largest (76%). Mean duration of arrival in emergency department was 3.08 hour. Metacid ingestion (29%) was found to be the most common cause for self harm. There is no difference of self harm for suicide and threat cause. Only 5% of patient with self harm has psychiatry illness in the past. Conclusions: Self harm forms a significant proportion of patient attending the Emergency department and the most common form of self harm used was metacid ingestion. There is compelling evidence for the need to improve delivery of care for patients who inflict self harm. Key words: Cause; emergency department; self harm. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/joim.v32i3.4954 Journal of Institute of Medicine, December, 2010; 32:3 14-17


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kossay Abdelhamid Ali Elabd ◽  
Abdullah Alkhenizan ◽  
Abdullah S. Aldughaither

Abstract BACKGROUND : Frequent sick leaves in any healthcare organization is a critical problem that can undermine the patients' care. METHODS : This is a quantitative cross-sectional study looking at the frequency of sick leaves among employees of a large, tertiary healthcare facility in Riyadh. We randomly selected 474 employees, who were seen in family medicine clinics during one-year period. We collected all the data retrospectively from their electronic medical records. Then we reviewed and analyzed all the data using SPSS software. RESULTS : There was no difference in the sick leaves rate between males and females (P-value 0.8618), but we saw a higher rate among younger employees (40 years old or less) compared to those 41 years or older (p-value <0.0001). We also investigated those who took four sick leaves or more during the period of the study, and we found that most of them were mainly nursing staff (31.71%), hospital assistances (24.39%) and housekeepers (14.63%). The commonest cause for taking sick leave in our study was viral upper respiratory tract infection. Therefore, we studied the effect of influenza vaccine on the frequency of sick leaves and we found that those who took the vaccine were less likely to take a leave because of flu (P-value <0.0001, Odd ratio 0.4067 with 95% CI 0.2739-0.608). CONCLUSION : younger employees, nurses, hospital assistants and housekeepers are more likely to take sick leaves. These findings need to be studied further in the future to help us dealing with the problem of absenteeism. Flu is the leading cause for sick leaves and influenza vaccine seemed to reduce its rate. In this study, we also discussed different methods that can be used by any healthcare organization to reduce absence rate.


2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 86
Author(s):  
Panteleimon Kalaronis ◽  
Antonia Kalogianni ◽  
Martha Kelesi ◽  
Eytichia Evagelidou ◽  
Ioulia-Maria Mpalla ◽  
...  

Introduction: Pain accounts for 40% of all patients admitted to the Emergency Department (ED). The most common cause of pain is abdominal pain, which accounts for 8%. In contrast to the international guidelines, pain is under-treated making the phenomenon of oligoanalgesia apparent.Aim: The purpose of this study was to explore the incidence of analgesia in patients admitted to the ED suffering from acute abdominal pain.  Material and Method: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The studied sample consisted of 197 patients, who admitted to the ED of a General Hospital of Athens, Greece with reported symptom: acute abdominal pain. For data collection, a special designed form of closed-type questionnaires was used. Data analysis was performed by using the Statistic Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) statistical packet ver.19.Results: Out of the total number of patients admitted to ED with reported abdominal pain, 74.6% received analgesia and the mean time of analgesia administration during ED admission was 46.43 minutes. The mean pain intensity at the first time point measurement was 7.16 and at the second one was 4.04, according to pain recording scale (0-10 scale). Non-opioid anti-inflammatories (52.3%),  non-steroidal analgesics (22.8%) and opioids (9.1%) were mainly administered patients during their ED stayConclusions: Despite the published international guidelines which refer to analgesia time and type, pain and especially abdominal pain, is under-treated. The key to tackling oligoanalgesia is to educate health professionals.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Owono Etoundi ◽  
Junette Arlette Metogo Mbengono ◽  
Ferdinand Ndom Ntock ◽  
Joel Noutakdie Tochie ◽  
Dominique Christelle Anaba Ndom ◽  
...  

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