OBJECTIVES To assess the safety of discharging patients with community acquired pneumonia (CAP) according to a clinical practice guideline. METHODS A systematic retrospective review of medical records of 867 adult patients discharged from an emergency department (ED) with CAP between 3 January 1999 and 3 January 2001. Readmission or death rates within 30 days of discharge were evaluated, usin...

OBJECTIVES This study describes the proportion of emergency department (ED) returns within 7 days due to adverse events, defined as adverse outcomes related to healthcare received. DESIGN Prospective cohort study. SETTING We used an electronically triggered adverse event surveillance system at a tertiary care ED from May to June 2010 to examine ED returns within 7 days of index visit. PAR...

BACKGROUND Information gaps occur when previously collected information is unavailable to a physician who is currently treating a patient. In this study we measured the prevalence of physician-reported information gaps for patients presenting to an emergency department at a teaching hospital. METHODS For 1002 visits to the emergency department made by 983 patients, we recorded all information...

BACKGROUND The association between asthma and obesity is becoming increasingly established but the mechanism that might explain the observed differences in asthma severity, control and quality of life between obese and non-obese adult asthmatics is not clear. THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS: 1) to determine asthma severity, control and quality of life in obese asthmatics and 2) to explore, accord...

Wildland fires are a yearly recurring phenomenon in many terrestrial ecosystems. Accurate fire severity estimates are of paramount importance for modeling fire-induced trace gas emissions and rehabilitating post-fire landscapes. We used high spatial and high spectral resolution MODIS/ASTER (MASTER) airborne simulator data acquired over four 2007 southern California burns to evaluate the effecti...

To assess the adequacy of medical prescriptions for community-acquired pneumonia at the emergency department of the Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre, we conducted a prospective cohort study, from January through April 2011. All patients with suspected pneumonia were selected from the first prescription of antimicrobials held in the emergency room. Patients with a description of pneumonia, c...

OBJECTIVES The objective was to identify the palliative care needs of seriously ill, older adults in the emergency department (ED). METHODS The authors conducted a cross-sectional structured survey. A convenience sample of 50 functionally impaired adults 65 years or older with coexisting cancer, congestive heart failure, end-stage liver or renal disease, stroke, oxygen-dependent pulmonary dis...

a c b s v c t s o The use of triage protocols in urgency and emergency services is a key strategy for the rapid treatment of the patient with severe clinical condition. The urgency categorization and waiting time definition are considered quality indicators in patient care, especially in situations when there is a large volume of patients. Emergency service triage is a relatively recent phenome...