INTRODUCTION Severe blunt trauma is a leading cause of premature death and handicap. However, the benefit for the patient of pre-hospital management by emergency physicians remains controversial because it may delay admission to hospital. This study aimed to compare the impact of medical pre-hospital management performed by SMUR (Service Mobile d'Urgences et de Réanimation) with non-medical pre...

Despite recent successful efforts to shorten the door-to-balloon time in patients with acute ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), prehospital delay remains unaffected. Nonetheless, the factors associated with prehospital delay have not been clearly identified in Korea. We retrospectively evaluated 423 patients with STEMI. The mean symptom onset-to-door time was 255 ± 285 (median:...

Objective: To assess the magnitude, causes and substandard care factors responsible for the third delay of maternal mortality seen in our unit III, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Civil Hospital, Karachi. Methods: This Cross-sectional, retrospective study was carried out on 152 mothers who died over a period of eight years from 1997 to 2004 at Civil Hospital Karachi. Death summaries of...

OBJECTIVE To describe the various components of the delay to thrombolytic treatment for patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) and to identify the hospital and patient characteristics related to these delays. DESIGN Cohort analysis from a hospital registry of patients receiving thrombolytic treatment. SETTING Forty acute care hospitals in Quebec. SUBJECTS All 1357 patients who rec...

BACKGROUND Despite increased awareness of the importance of early treatment in acute myocardial infarction (AMI), the delay from symptom onset to hospital arrival is still too long and rehospitalisations are frequent. Little is known about how health-related quality of life (HRQL) affects delay time and the frequency of readmissions. METHOD We used quality registers to investigate whether pat...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to examine the awareness of a recent mass media campaign, and its influence on knowledge and prehospital times, in a cohort of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) patients admitted to an Australian hospital. METHODS AND RESULTS We conducted 199 semistructured interviews with consecutive ACS patients who were aged 35 to 75 years, competent to provide consent, and...

using a hierarchical hybrid fuzzy model, this paper presents an intelligent system to manage the traffic of ambulances and the vehicles for transporting blood and blood products and generally the transportation related to health emergencies. the transportation of emergency patients, emergency accidents and health-related emergencies, and the transportation of blood and blood products should be ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Successful acute stroke intervention depends on early hospital presentation. Our study aimed to examine the extent of and factors associated with prehospital delays after acute stroke in Taiwan, where people are new to thrombolytic therapy for stroke. METHODS Data were prospectively collected from 196 patients admitted with acute stroke who presented to the emergency de...

OBJECTIVES To examine the delay in presentation, diagnosis, and treatment of malignant spinal cord compression and to define the effect of this delay on motor and bladder function at the time of treatment. DESIGN Prospective study of all new patients presenting to a regional cancer centre with this condition. SETTING Regional cancer centre. SUBJECTS 301 consecutive patients. MAIN OUTCOM...