Background: Violence in the emergency department (ED) setting is well documented in medical literature. Weapons can be used to cause significant injury or mortality, although there is a paucity of literature on weapons and weapons screening in the ED.
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of initiating a weapons screening process on the identification and removal of weapons.
Methods: Multiple aspects of a weapons screening program were evaluated at 2 and 6 months prior to and after a weapons screening protocol was initiated at an urban ED. In the Pre-Screen periods, only patients primarily seeking care for mental health were screened prior to entry. In the Post-Screen periods, all patients and visitors were screened with walk-through magnetometers or wand metal detectors, and additional screening checks were initiated. The number of individuals screened and numbers of weapons found were measured. Descriptive statistics comparing Pre- and Post-Screen periods were performed.
Results: Prior to the new screening process, 511 and 1701 patients primarily seeking care for mental health were screened, with 15 and 103 weapons confiscated at 2 and 6 months, respectively. After the screening process was initiated, 13,149 and 43,321 ED patients and visitors were screened, with 194 and 567 weapons confiscated at 2 and 6 months, respectively. Persons screened increased by 25-fold at both 2 and 6 months after implementing the screening process. Weapons confiscated increased approximately 13-fold and sixfold at the respective 2- and 6-month Pre- and Post-Screen periods, respectively.
Conclusion: Implementation of weapons screening significantly increased the number of weapons identified and confiscated prior to entry in the ED by patients and visitors.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2023.08.010 | DOI Listing |
Int J Mol Sci
January 2025
Department of Pharmacy (DIFAR), University of Genoa, Viale Cembrano, 4, 16148 Genova, Italy.
Oxidative stress (OS), generated by the overrun of reactive species of oxygen and nitrogen (RONS), is the key cause of several human diseases. With inflammation, OS is responsible for the onset and development of clinical signs and the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is a multifactorial chronic neurodegenerative syndrome indicated by a form of progressive dementia associated with aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlcohol Res
January 2025
Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy, Division of Epidemiology, Department of Population Health, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, New York.
Background: Firearm violence remains a leading cause of death and injury in the United States. Prior research supports that alcohol exposures, including individual-level alcohol use and alcohol control policies, are modifiable risk factors for firearm violence, yet additional research is needed to support prevention efforts.
Objectives: This scoping review aims to update a prior 2016 systematic review on the links between alcohol exposure and firearm violence to examine whether current studies indicate causal links between alcohol use, alcohol interventions, and firearm violence-related outcomes.
World J Gastroenterol
January 2025
Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut 1107 2020, Lebanon.
Gastric polyps are commonly detected during upper gastrointestinal endoscopy. They are most often benign and rarely become malignant. Nevertheless, adequate knowledge, diagnostic modalities, and management strategies should be the endoscopist's readily available "weapons" to defeat the potentially malignant "enemies".
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMayo Clin Proc Innov Qual Outcomes
February 2025
Evidence-Based Practice Center, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN.
This study aimed to systematicically evaluate and quantify the prevalence of weapons in the health care setting. A systematic search of MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science, CINAHL, and EBSCO MegaFILE was performed from inception to January 12, 2024. The primary outcome was the prevalence of weapons in the health care setting on patients and/or visitors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSensors (Basel)
December 2024
Wireless Sensing and Imaging Laboratory & 6G Research Laboratory, SRM University AP, Amaravati 522502, India.
This study presents a numerical modeling approach that utilizes millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) Frequency-Modulated Continuous-Wave (FMCW) radar to reconstruct and classify five weapon types: grenades, knives, guns, iron rods, and wrenches. A dataset of 1000 images of these weapons was collected from various online sources and subsequently used to generate 3605 samples in the MATLAB (R2022b) environment for creating reflectivity-added images. Background reflectivity was considered to range from 0 to 0.
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