Management of medical emergency patients in Danish emergency departments.

Autor: Brink E; Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark., Jakobsen TS; Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark., Lassen AT; Department of Emergency Medicine, Odense University Hospital., Weile J; Department of Emergency Medicine, Regional Hospital Horsens., Posth S; Research Center for Emergency Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Danish medical journal [Dan Med J] 2023 Aug 23; Vol. 70 (9). Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Aug 23.
Abstrakt: Introduction: In many emergency departments (ED), specialised teams are activated to take care of medical emergency patients (MEP). The aim of this study was to describe the organisation of the management of adult MEPs in Danish EDs. The study examined trigger team activation criteria, training and composition of trigger teams.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study. A questionnaire was sent to the head of department and head nurse at each Danish ED. They recruited eligible personnel to answer the questionnaire. Data were obtained between 1 October and 15 December 2021.
Results: We included 23 hospitals and 19 responded (82.6%). Most EDs had a trigger call for MEP (89.5%). In 70.6% of the EDs, trigger calls for MEP were activated > 300 times annually. All EDs used red triage (Danish Emergency Process Triage) as activation criteria for MEP calls. Most respondents received simulation training (82.4%). All respondents felt adequately educated to manage MEP. The MEP trigger teams varied from three to 11 members with great variation with respect to team leaders.
Conclusion: Management of MEP varies greatly in Danish Hospitals. A systematic approach to MEP management in line with management of trauma and stroke patients may potentially serve to improve the quality of care for and outcome of this patient group, but further research is needed.
Funding: None.
Trial Registration: Not relevant.
(Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE