Emergency Medical Services
Albert Hardy Wu; Mariza Fitriati; Disa Edralyn; Adriana Jardine
Volume 9, Issue 2 , July 2023, , Pages 142-145
Abstract
Objective: Antepartum hemorrhage (APH) is one of the leading causes of maternal and fetalmortality worldwide, complicating 2–4% of pregnancies. Considering the probability of bloodtransfusion, blood testing and cross-matching are essential for the anesthesiologist duringperioperative management. ...
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Objective: Antepartum hemorrhage (APH) is one of the leading causes of maternal and fetalmortality worldwide, complicating 2–4% of pregnancies. Considering the probability of bloodtransfusion, blood testing and cross-matching are essential for the anesthesiologist duringperioperative management. Rhesus (Rh) is the second most significant blood group systemafter ABO. Hence, this blood type system needs to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, inIndonesia, Rh-negative blood types are rare.Case Presentation: A 39-year-old woman with Gravida IV, three term pregnancies, no pretermpregnancies, no abortions, and three living children (GIVP3003) and gestational age 26 to 27weeks arrived at the hospital with massive bleeding from the birth canal three hours beforeadmission. The bleeding was fresh red, and the patient had changed diapers twice before arrivingat the hospital. She presented hypovolemic shock, a blood pressure of 71/39 mm Hg, andanemic conjunctivas, with a history of B Rh (-) blood type, ongoing HIV therapy, and completedpulmonary tuberculosis (TB) treatment. The hospital’s and PMI’s (Indonesian Red Cross) bloodbank had no Rh (-) bloodstock. An emergency cesarean section under general anesthesia wasperformed, and a 900 g neonate was delivered. The patient received a total of four stored wholeblood (SWB) bags of type B Rh (+) blood products, one SWB bag during surgery, and three SWBbags during recovery in the intensive care unit (ICU).Conclusion: Rh (+) transfusion in patients with Rh (-) should be the last option in an emergency.The transfusion reaction did not occur right away in the initial transfusion. Under promptmanagement, the transfusion response and the life-threatening condition were then successfullymanaged.
Infectious disease
Mojtaba Miladinia; Farhad Abolnezhadian; Joachim G. Voss; Kourosh Zarea; Naser Hatamzadeh; Mandana Ghanavati
Volume 8, Issue 2 , July 2022, , Pages 90-94
Abstract
Objective: Final patient triage determines which patients can be home-isolated andwhich patients require hospitalization on the basis to predict the patient’s prognosismost accurately. Final triage is an important link in the clinical management chain of thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, ...
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Objective: Final patient triage determines which patients can be home-isolated andwhich patients require hospitalization on the basis to predict the patient’s prognosismost accurately. Final triage is an important link in the clinical management chain of thecoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and a comprehensive review of variouspatient triage methods is very important to guide decision making and triage efficiency.Decision by clinicians about hospitalization or home-discharge is one of the main challengesin places with limited hospital facilities compared to the high volume of COVID-19 patients.This review was designed to guide clinicians on how to address this challenge.Methods: In this mini review we searched scientific databases to obtain the final triagemethods of COVID-19 patients and the important criteria in each method. In order toconducted searches a period from December 2019 to July 2020 was considered. All searcheswere done in electronic databases and search engines.Results: Findings revealed four current methods for final triage (decision-making regardinghome-isolation or hospitalization of COVID-19 patients). These methods included 1)demographic and background information, 2) clinical information, 3) laboratory indicatorsand 4) initial chest CT-scan. Each of the aforementioned methods encompassed significantcriteria according to which decisions on the patient’s prognosis and final triage were made.Finally, by evaluating each final triage method, we found that each method had somelimitations.Conclusion: An effective and quick final triage requires simultaneous complementary useof all four methods to compensate for each other’s weaknesses and add to each other’sstrengths. It is therefore suggested to assure that clinicians are trained in all four COVID-19patient’s triage methods and their useful criteria in order to achieve evidence-basedperformance for better triage (decision between home-isolation versus hospitalization).
Emergency medicine
Mojtaba Miladinia; Elham Mousavi Nouri
Volume 8, Issue 1 , January 2022, , Pages 1-2
Abstract
Medication errors (MEs) are considered the most common medical errors and as one of the major challenges threatening the health system, which can be also reduced. MEs threaten patients' safety and may increase the length of hospital stay, lead to unexpected complications, mortality and side costs. In ...
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Medication errors (MEs) are considered the most common medical errors and as one of the major challenges threatening the health system, which can be also reduced. MEs threaten patients' safety and may increase the length of hospital stay, lead to unexpected complications, mortality and side costs. In 2017, the World Health Organization launched Medication without Harm to reduce severe avoidable medication-related damage by 50%, globally in the next 5 years. Emergency Departments (EDs) are stressful care environments which making EDs more prone to MEs. Therefore, EDs need to be seriously considered to reduce MEs and increase patients' safety. In this regard, it is of great significance to know about the most common stage of error in pharmacotherapy, the most common type of medication error and the most common causes of MEs in the emergency department practice setting. in conclusion, the most common types of MEs in EDs include drug omission error, wrong dose and strong infusion rate. In addition, the administration and prescribing are the most common stages of MEs in EDs. Also, the most common causes of MEs in EDs in Iran include nursing shortage (fatigue) and poor medication knowledge .
Emergency Medical Services
Ali Sadrollahi; Adeleh Gharataghani; Mehdi Mahmoudi; Fardaneh Gholipour
Volume 4, Issue 2 , July 2018, , Pages 55-61
Abstract
Objective: The key point to detect patients’ need in pre-hospital emergency is to have high ability to take medical history. All research findings show that this ability is low. The objective of this research is to investigate the ability to take medical history of patients among the personnel ...
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Objective: The key point to detect patients’ need in pre-hospital emergency is to have high ability to take medical history. All research findings show that this ability is low. The objective of this research is to investigate the ability to take medical history of patients among the personnel of pre-hospital emergency medical service (EMS) in Golestan province, Iran.Methods: This research was a descriptive cross-sectional study carried in 2016. The population included non-staff technicians and an operator working in the message center (N = 171). The samples were selected using multi-stage cluster sampling. Data were collected by a researcher-developed questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed by SPSS software version 16 conducting descriptive and inferential statistics. All tests were administered at a significance level of P < 0.05.Results: One hundred sixty-five (96.5%) participants were male. The mean score of the ability to take medical history was 58.4 ± 11.1. Therefore, 95 participants (58.3 %) had poor ability and 64 participants (39.3 %) owned moderate ability. The highest score concerning the ability to take medical history was for the aspect of professional knowledge (mean rank = 5). The most influential aspect in the ability was respectively for ‘professional knowledge’ (P = 0.0001, Beta = 0.509). Pearson correlation coefficient indicated a relationship (r=-0.149, P = 0.05) between the ability to take medical history and age.Conclusion: The results of the current study indicated that the ability to take medical history among the personnel of pre-hospital medical emergency of Golestan province was low. Therefore, a thorough review of trainings promoting personnel’s professional knowledge is urgently required.
Hossein Alimohammadi; Papak Babaie; Hamid Reza Hatamabadi; Anita Sabzghabaei; Hojat Derakhshanfar; Farahnaz Bidari Zerehpoosh
Volume 1, Issue 2 , July 2015, , Pages 56-59
Abstract
Objective: Standardization of hospital emergency units is a major goal in developed countries to decrease the duration of patients stay in these units. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of long-term staying in an emergency ward.
Methods: In the present 2-month cross-sectional ...
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Objective: Standardization of hospital emergency units is a major goal in developed countries to decrease the duration of patients stay in these units. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of long-term staying in an emergency ward.
Methods: In the present 2-month cross-sectional study, patients referring to the emergency ward of Imam Hossein hospital were assessed. The patients’ demographic data, including age, the presenting symptoms and signs, reasons for delays, and the final outcome in relation to the location of hospitalization and discharge information were recorded. Data were reported as frequencies and percentages. The results were reported as means and standard deviations using SPSS version 20.
Results: Of 10087 patients admitted into the emergency ward during a 2-month period, 75 patients (0.7%) needed to stay and wait for more than 24 hours. The mean ± standard deviation of the patients’ ages was 62.5 ± 20.2 years, with 60% of the patients being over 60 years of age. The most common reason for overcrowding in the emergency ward was a lack of empty beds, with the need for ICU beds as the most important reason for bed deficiency in 59% of the cases. Nervous system problems were the most common reasons for referring to the emergency unit (41%) in patients under study. Finally, 81% of the patients were hospitalized, 10% died, 7% were discharged based on personal request and 1.3% were transferred to another hospital.
Conclusion: The prevalence of patients staying and waiting in the emergency ward for more than 24 hours was 0.7%. Lack of empty ICU beds was the most important reason for such delays; however, paraclinical problems had no role in these delays which were associated with the death of 10% of patients.
Emergency medicine
Mohammad Reza Amiresmaili; Mahmood Nekooi Moghadam; Amin Saberi Nia; Rahil Ghorbani Nia
Volume 1, Issue 1 , January 2015, , Pages 23-27
Abstract
Objective: Emergency department is the most important part of a hospital and it seems that 24-hour presence of emergency medicine specialist can be effective in improving the performance of this ward. Therefore, the present study was performed with the aim of studying the effect of 24-hour presence of ...
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Objective: Emergency department is the most important part of a hospital and it seems that 24-hour presence of emergency medicine specialist can be effective in improving the performance of this ward. Therefore, the present study was performed with the aim of studying the effect of 24-hour presence of emergency medicine specialists in the emergency department of Shahid Bahonar hospital, Kerman/Iran.
Methods: In this mixed methods study, data collection was done through studying various related documents and semi-structured interview. Data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis.
Results: The presence of emergency medicine specialists resulted in a decrease in waiting time, hospital’s revenue growth, increase in number of requested laboratory tests, improvement of decision-making for patients and decrease of first 24-hour mortality rate. Economic benefits, improvement of the quality of services and emergency department management were among qualitative results of the present study.
Conclusion: In whole, 24-hour presence of emergency medicine specialists in the emergency department of Kerman Shahid Bahonar hospital has been effective in improving the performance and quality of services.