How emergency departments of different levels and types cope with a large-scale contagious infectious disease is unclear. We retrospectively analyzed the response of 100 emergency departments regarding use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and implementation of infection control measures (ICMs) during the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Taiwan. Emergency department workers in...

BACKGROUND Patients under palliative care and in hospital-at-home services are frequently transferred to emergency departments. We set out to identify the reasons for these presentations to determine the proportion that might be avoidable. METHODS We conducted a retrospective study by assessment of patient files. We studied admissions to four emergency departments in an area of France (Puy-de...

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...

BACKGROUND Compared with younger people, older people have a higher risk of adverse health outcomes when presenting to emergency departments. As the population ages, older people will make up an increasing proportion of the emergency department population. Therefore it is timely that consideration be given to the quality of care received by older persons in emergency departments, and to conside...

1. Chance Random errors (chance) reflect the observation that most systems, be they human bodies or emergency departments, are subject to variation. Some people are healthier than others and some emergency departments have better staffing. Any measurement of these systems may be influenced by the play of chance. For example, it may just be bad luck that an emergency department has long waiting ...

We describe an agent based model of an emergency department and its utility for evaluating workflow and assessing patient diversion policies. The overall goal of the research is to develop tools to better understand and manage emergency departments. There are several modes in which agent based modeling tools may be of benefit. In a self contained manner the operation of an emergency department ...