Milad Ahmadi Marzaleh; Rita Rezaee; Abbas Rezaianzadeh; Mahnaz Rakhshan; Gholamhassan Haddadi; Mahmoudreza Peyravi
Volume 7, Issue 3 , July 2019, , Pages 300-306
Abstract
Objective: To develop a national model for hospitals’ Emergency Department (ED) preparedness when facing radiation and nuclear incidents as well as nuclear terrorism in Iran.Methods: This analytical study was carried out in 2019 via Delphi technique in two rounds and prioritization using a pairwise ...
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Objective: To develop a national model for hospitals’ Emergency Department (ED) preparedness when facing radiation and nuclear incidents as well as nuclear terrorism in Iran.Methods: This analytical study was carried out in 2019 via Delphi technique in two rounds and prioritization using a pairwise questionnaire. Using classic Delphi technique and pairwise comparison, the components were given to 32 specialists in emergency medicine, nuclear medicine, medical physics, nuclear physics, radiobiology and radiation protection, health in disaster and emergency, and passive defense. Finally, the national model was developed by holding two focus group sessions.Results: The results from the two rounds of Delphi technique showed that 31 factors of preparedness were classified into three main classes, namely staff, stuff, and structure (system). Only three factors were excluded and the rest were agreed upon by the specialists. Given the weight of each class, it was found that staff preparedness and stuff preparedness had the highest and lowest priorities, respectively.Conclusion: Comprehensive preparedness requires enhancing and promoting cultural, social, economic, and political levels. Indeed, all preparedness levels should be promoted in alignment with each other. Hence, governments should align their policies to manage such incidents.
Joaquin Valle Alonso; John Turpie; Islam Farhad; Gabrielle Ruffino
Volume 7, Issue 1 , January 2019, , Pages 67-71
Abstract
Sepsis and septic shock remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. In septic patient’s bedside physical examination can often be unhelpful in helping to identify the source of infection and, therefore, decide upon appropriate management. Protocols for point-of-care-ultrasound ...
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Sepsis and septic shock remain a major cause of morbidity and mortality globally. In septic patient’s bedside physical examination can often be unhelpful in helping to identify the source of infection and, therefore, decide upon appropriate management. Protocols for point-of-care-ultrasound (POCUS) in critically-ill patients who present with shock or trauma have been described elsewhere including rapid ultrasound in shock (RUSH), focused assessment with sonography for trauma (FAST), and focused cardiac ultrasound (FOCUS). Although the use of POCUS in sepsis has been reported in existing literature, there is not an algorithm for when POCUS is indicated in septic patients. We describe the case of a 70-year-old woman who presented to the emergency department (ED) with a 1-week history of diarrhoea and vomiting. The initial diagnosis in ED was viral gastroenteritis with prerenal acute kidney injury and she was initially referred to the medial team. However, the patient remained hypotensive and oliguric after 2 litters of IV fluids. A point-of-case-ultrasound (POCUS) showed a right kidney with moderate hydronephrosis. Urology team was immediately contacted with a CT that confirmed an obstructive stone causing moderate kidney hydronephrosis. Emergency nephrostomy was performed and the patient was discharged and has remained asymptomatic.
Nurettin Aktas; Umut Gulacti; Ugur Lok; Irfan Aydin; Tayfun Borta; Murat Celik
Volume 6, Issue 1 , January 2018, , Pages 64-70
Abstract
Objective: To identify errors in forensic reports and to describe the characteristics of traumatic medico-legal cases presenting to the emergency department (ED) at a tertiary care hospital.Methods: This study is a retrospective cross-sectional study. The study includes cases resulting in a forensic ...
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Objective: To identify errors in forensic reports and to describe the characteristics of traumatic medico-legal cases presenting to the emergency department (ED) at a tertiary care hospital.Methods: This study is a retrospective cross-sectional study. The study includes cases resulting in a forensic report among all traumatic patients presenting to the ED of Adiyaman University Training and Research Hospital, Adiyaman, Turkey during a 1-year period. We recorded the demographic characteristics of all the cases, time of presentation to the ED, traumatic characteristics of medico-legal cases, forms of suicide attempt, suspected poisonous substance exposure, the result of follow-up and the type of forensic report.Results: A total of 4300 traumatic medico-legal cases were included in the study and 72% of these cases were male. Traumatic medico-legal cases occurred at the greatest frequency in July (10.1%) and 28.9% of all cases occurred in summer. The most frequent causes of traumatic medico-legal cases in the ED were traffic accidents (43.4%), violent crime (30.5%), and suicide attempt (7.2%). The most common method of attempted suicide was drug intake (86.4%). 12.3% of traumatic medico-legal cases were hospitalized and 24.2% of those hospitalized were admitted to the orthopedics service. The most common error in forensic reports was the incomplete recording of the patient's “cooperation” status (82.7%). Additionally, external traumatic lesions were not defined in 62.4% of forensic reports.Conclusion: The majority of traumatic medico-legal cases were male age 18-44 years, the most common source of trauma was traffic accidents and in the summer months. When writing a forensic report, emergency physicians made mistakes in noting physical examination findings and identifying external traumatic lesions. Physicians should make sure that the traumatic medico-legal patients they treat have adequate documentation for reference during legal proceedings. The legal duties and responsibilities of physicians should be emphasized with in-service training.
Mohammadreza Maleki; Seyyed Meysam Mousavi; Mina Anjomshoa; Nasrin Shaarbafchizadeh; Zeinab Naimi Taleghani
Volume 5, Issue 4 , October 2017, , Pages 292-298
Abstract
Objective: To explore impact of emergency medicine residency program on patient waiting times in emergency department (ED) and determine the associated factors.Methods: A two-phased sequential exploratory mixed-methods approach was used. The first phase was comprised of retrospective before-after design ...
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Objective: To explore impact of emergency medicine residency program on patient waiting times in emergency department (ED) and determine the associated factors.Methods: A two-phased sequential exploratory mixed-methods approach was used. The first phase was comprised of retrospective before-after design of ED encounters for a 3-month period, six months before and six months after the introduction of an emergency medicine residency program in an Iranian teaching hospital. The second phase included semi-structured interviews with five individuals which purposively selected to participate in qualitative design. Quantitative data were analysed descriptively and qualitative data were analysed using an iterative framework approach.Results: The most patients were admitted to the hospital in night shift, both before and after the resident EMS. No statistically significant differences were found among all of the waiting times during the two time periods except for the average time interval between admission and physician start time (p<0.0001), which increased (instead of reducing), and the average time interval between physician start time and first treatment measure (p<0.0001), which decreased during the year the residents began. The interviewees revealed the intradisciplinary conflicts and interferences existing between ED and other specialist departments, are main important factor to delayed processing of patients visits.Conclusion: This study has shown that intradisciplinary conflict would affect the outcomes of emergency medicine residency program and ED process. These new findings enhance the understanding of the nature of conflicts and will persuade policy makers that design a set of clinical practice guidelines to clarify the duties and responsibilities of parties involved in ED.
Amin Daemi
Volume 4, Issue 1 , January 2016, , Pages 62-63
Abbas Heydari; Amir Emami Zeydi
Volume 2, Issue 2 , April 2014, , Pages 99-100
