BACKGROUND Although the value of clinical registries has been well recognized in developed countries, their use for measuring the quality of emergency medical service care remains relatively unknown. We report the methodology and findings of a statewide emergency medical service surveillance initiative, which is used to measure the quality of systems of care for patients with out-of-hospital ca...

Received: November 14, 2006 Accepted for publication: February 1, 2007 From the Department of Emergency Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Show Chwan Memorial Hospital Department of Radiology, Tri-Service General Hospital and National Defense Medial Center Department of Electrical Engineering, National Taiwan University Address for reprints: Dr. Chi-Wen J...

OBJECTIVE Effective provision of urgent stroke care relies upon admission to hospital by emergency ambulance and may involve pre-hospital redirection. The proportion and characteristics of patients who do not arrive by emergency ambulance and their impact on service efficiency is unclear. To assist in the planning of regional stroke services we examined the volume, characteristics and prognosis...

background trauma still stands atop of the list of emergencies. transfer of these patients via emergency medical services (ems) dispatch is critical with regard to importance of timing. this aspect has achieved greater importance due to population increase and telephone triage. objectives we aimed to decrease unnecessary emergency medical services (ems) missions via a computer program designed ...

background advanced ambulance service (emergency medical services/ems) is considered to be an integral part of emergency medical care as the first assets responding to emergencies and disasters in the prehospital setting in most developed countries. objectives the aim of this study was to evaluate the current situation of shiraz’s ems by comparing data obtained during two different time periods...

The effects of outpatient civil commitment on community tenure and functioning were studied in a group of 20 patients with a history of recurrent hospitalizations, noncompliance with outpatient treatment, and good response to treatment. During the first 12 months of outpatient commitment, patients experienced significant reductions in visits to the psychiatric emergency service, hospital admiss...

The NHSWales chief is urging patients “not to clog up accident and emergency units,” the BBC recently reported. The story? Four fifths of patients using emergency departments didn’t need hospital admission or treatment. The inference? Such attendances were frivolous, entirely avoidable, or irresponsible. The Welsh “Choose Well” programme, reasonably enough, aims to steer patients to appropriate...

This paper describes a three day crisis resolution unit within the confines of the psychiatric emergency service of a general hospital. It utilizes a crisis model of acute intervention, time limited psychotherapeutic approach combined with family therapy, and psychotropic medications when indicated. 136 consecutive admissions were reviewed, 49% were discharged within 72 hours, and 51 % required...

INTRODUCTION Mental health patients boarding for long hours, even days, in United States emergency departments (EDs) awaiting transfer for psychiatric services has become a considerable and widespread problem. Past studies have shown average boarding times ranging from 6.8 hours to 34 hours. Most proposed solutions to this issue have focused solely on increasing available inpatient psychiatric ...

This study proposed a Context-Aware emergeNcy rEmedy system (CANE), based on the operations of a real hospital, to provide complete and convenient functions for emergency processes and medical consultants using mobile communication networks. The CANE system combines emergency medical services with GIS/GPS technology, mobile multimedia communications and context-aware controls. The CANE system l...