Freestanding emergency departments and the trauma patient.

Background: Freestanding emergency departments (FEDs) continue to grow in number and more research is needed on these facilities.

Objective: We sought to characterize the types of injuries and patients who initially presented to two FEDs and were transferred to the main tertiary care ED for trauma team consult and admission.

Methods: This retrospective cohort descriptive study examined medical records of adult trauma patients who were initially seen at an FED and then transferred to the main ED.

Door-to-balloon times from freestanding emergency departments meet ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction reperfusion guidelines.

Background: Freestanding emergency departments (FEDs) introduce a challenge to physicians who care for the patient with an ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) because treatment is highly time dependent. FEDs have no percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) capabilities, which necessitates transfer to a PCI-capable facility or fibrinolysis.

Study Objective: Our aim was to determine the proportion of STEMI patients who arrived to an FED and were subsequently transferred for PCI and met the door-to-balloon reperfusion guidelines of 90 min.

Posted emergency department wait times are not always accurate.

Objectives: Hospitals around the United States are advertising emergency department (ED) wait times. The objective was to measure the difference between publicly posted and actual ED wait times and to compare these between ED site volumes.

Methods: This study was a retrospective consecutive sample of ED patients at one hospital system with four EDs.

Improved auscultation skills in paramedic students using a modified stethoscope.

Background: The Ventriloscope® (Lecat's SimplySim, Tallmadge, OH) is a modified stethoscope used as a simulation training device for auscultation.

Objective: To test the effectiveness of the Ventriloscope as a training device in teaching heart and lung auscultatory findings to paramedic students.

Methods: A prospective, single-hospital study conducted in a paramedic-teaching program.

A study of the psychological factors in outcomes for officers who survive ballistic assault.

Among law enforcement personnel, who are subject to assault with firearms, there has been a trend toward decreased mortality and physical morbidity associated with the use of personal protective armor (PPA). Although there has been an increase in the rate of survival, studies of the unique psychological factors associated with this type of assault are essentially nonexistent. The prevalence and nature of the negative psychological sequelae associated with this type of assault and psychological injury, along with effective prevention techniques, were studied through retrospective interviews of registrants in two "body armor survival clubs.