OBJECTIVES To derive a tool to determine Urgent Care Center (UCC) crowding and investigate the association between different levels of UCC overcrowding and negative patient care outcomes. DESIGN Prospective pilot study. SETTING Single centre study in the USA. PARTICIPANTS 3565 patients who registered at UCC during the 21-day study period were included. Patients who had no overcrowding sta...

Background Acute migraine headaches can last from 4 hours to 3 days if untreated. Migraines often require bed rest, pain medications, and time off from work and other activities, thus reducing an individual’s productivity and quality of life. Seven percent of U.S. migraine patients reported using an ED or urgent care center for treatment within the previous 12 months. Of patients who use an ED ...

OBJECTIVES To understand the reasons behind, and experience of, seeking and receiving emergency ambulance treatment for a 'primary care sensitive' condition. DESIGN A comprehensive, qualitative systematic review. Medline, Embase, PsychInfo, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health, Health Management Information Systems, Healthcare Management Information Consortium, OpenSigle, EThOS and D...

Objective The purpose of this study was to assess the frequency of complications of endotracheal intubation (ETI) in neonates. Methods The newborns that were admitted and needed urgent or semi-urgent intubation were enrolled in this study over a 1 year period. Route for intubation in all cases were orotracheal. Cases were not routinely sedated or paralyzed. The patients were clinically and rad...

BACKGROUND Significant controversy remains over how urgently coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) should be scheduled, particularly for patients with stenosis of the left main coronary artery. Our main objective was to evaluate the safety of waiting for CABG among patients with left main coronary artery disease using a standardized triage system. METHODS We identified 561 consecutive p...

urgent eye care services in the uk have been facing increasing number of attendances over the recent years with hospitals struggling to keep up with the demand. the high number of patients presenting to these services poses great challenges for their sustainability. inappropriate referrals, the introduction of the european working time directive for junior doctors, the “never refuse” policy...

Acute flare up of hepatitis B in noncirrhotic liver with rapid liver function deterioration is a critical condition. This flare up of hepatitis B may be subsided under medical treatments, otherwise urgent liver transplantation is needed. However, the necessity of urgent liver transplantation is hard to decide. In this institute, the indications of urgent liver transplantation for acute flare up...

Emergency services are asked to treat a significant volume of patients that require nonemergent care. Alternative strategies have been proposed for managing this patient population, ranging from free-standing urgent care centers to the integration of urgent care patients with other patients treated in the ED. This article explores issues and physical options surrounding the provision of patient...