Latest news with #emergencydepartment
BBC News
a day ago
- Health
- BBC News
Body-worn camera trial at Maidstone Hospital begins
A trial for staff at a hospital in Kent to wear body-worn cameras has members of emergency department staff at Maidstone Hospital will wear the cameras in an attempt to increase the safety of staff, patients and members of the public, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (MTW) 12-week trial has been introduced in response to an increase in "challenging behaviour" across emergency departments, the trust Dunnett, head of security management at MTW, said: "The safety and wellbeing of our staff, patients and visitors always comes first." He added: "The aim of the body-warn camera trial is to create a safer environment for everyone visiting, and working in, the emergency department, and forms part of a wider project to reduce abusive behaviour across our hospitals."Other trials in the UK have shown the use of body-worn cameras was effective in reducing violence and aggression, preventing situations from escalating and making NHS staff feel safer at work, the trust said. Review carried out Footage from the cameras can also be used if further action is needed to be taken following an wearing the cameras are to activate them in situations where they experience abuse or feel threatened, and only after they have notified the individual that they are going to be trial will be fully compliant with data protection requirements, the trust added.A review will take place at the end of the trial to evaluate its success and determine next steps.A previous BBC investigation discovered more than 1,700 physical assaults were recorded on NHS hospital staff in the South East between 2018 and 2022.
CTV News
2 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
Brantford hospital reporting ‘significantly higher' wait times
The Brantford General Hospital is seen on Nov. 18, 2024. (Colton Wiens/CTV News) The Brant Community Healthcare System is asking people to think twice before visiting the Brantford General Hospital's emergency department. In a social media post on Tuesday, the healthcare system warned the emergency department is experiencing 'significantly higher patient volumes and wait times.' At 6:30 p.m., the average wait time to see a physician was listed as two hours and five minutes. The longest wait time was three hours and 26 minutes. They ask patients with non-life-threatening issues to seek help from a family doctor or use other health resources, such as the Willett Urgent Care Centre in Paris, Ont. or virtual urgent care by visiting
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Health
- The Guardian
New research shows a blindingly simple new procedure can help save children's lives in emergency departments
An eight-year-old child attends her last day of school before Easter holidays, plays with her siblings, has dinner and gets ice-cream. The next day she develops a headache and vomiting. Then, as her hands grow cold, her parents take her to the local children's hospital. Minutes after the child is triaged as lower priority, her mother tells the emergency department clerk that she is concerned about white patches in her daughter's eyes. A junior doctor decides this can wait. One minute later, the child's mother is back at the desk. This time, a nurse documents a high temperature and heart rate but doesn't act. An hour later, the child can barely speak. A nurse acts. Two hours later, the child is dead. The diagnosis: fatal sepsis due to Streptococcus A, the same bacteria that causes strep throat and tonsillitis. The subsequent coroner's inquest in 2023 uncovers excruciatingly painful details and missed opportunities. On the night of the incident, one nurse was responsible for nine patients (a reasonable ratio is one to four) but sometimes two nurses were responsible for up to 60 patients. Combined with a shortage of other resources, disaster was waiting to happen. For their part, the parents described repeated failed attempts to escalate their concerns, their anxiety for their child mixed with worry about 'being kicked out of the hospital for being rude'. They described staff avoiding eye contact and seemingly not taking the spectre of a rapidly deteriorating child seriously enough. The whole ordeal was unbearable, so it was only a matter of time before several Indian professionals asked me what I intended to do, implying that also being Indian, I had an obligation to raise the uncomfortable issue of racism in healthcare. But given the string of omissions that resulted in the tragedy, I found it glib to attribute the entire occurrence to racism or unconscious bias – and indeed, no such allegations or findings were made during the inquest. I reflected on the question of what I should do as a parent who has experienced both loss and medical emergencies. When your child's life hangs in the balance, or worse, that child dies, in that moment, there are no healing words, only noise. It was impermissible for anyone to say, 'I know how you feel'. I also reflected on the question as a doctor who has made her share of errors. No matter how many inquests absolve the individual and implicate the system, the avoidable death of a patient is an intensely personal failing. It is a memory that clings to you, wakes you up in the middle of the night and humbles all but the most insight-less person. I didn't write about the incident at the time, but the thought that gnawed at me was, 'if only someone had listened to the parents'. Recently a group of Australian researchers has designed a pragmatic study to examine the relationship between parental concern for clinical deterioration and critical illness. Over a period of two years, across nearly 74,000 children younger than 19 presenting to a paediatric emergency department or inpatient unit, parents were asked one simple question: 'Are you worried your child is getting worse?' Of the nearly 190,000 responses, just under 5% indicated concern for clinical deterioration. The first notable finding, therefore, was that contrary to assumptions, parents of sick children don't cry wolf, they act judiciously and respectfully. The second sobering finding was that compared with patients whose parents did not have a documented concern, patients whose parents reported a concern were more likely to be admitted to intensive care, receive mechanical ventilation, and die during admission. As if this were not lesson enough, parental concern was found to be more strongly associated with ICU admission than any abnormal vital sign including abnormal heart rate or breathing, cardinal signs of deterioration relied upon by clinicians. In 19% of cases, parents reported a problem several hours before any vital sign abnormality. I had to read this multiple times to absorb the significance. It's all very well to have bright rooms and fancy equipment but what is the most child-friendly thing of all? It's to ask the parents if they are worried. If the findings can be replicated, this 'intervention' will turn out to be blindingly simple and yet, potentially life-saving. This is the stuff of good medicine – cheap, effective, widely applicable. Coming from the world of adult medicine and geriatric oncology, what applies to sick children applies just as much to sick adults. Caregiver concern should be labelled a vital sign. But while we all know the importance of eliciting such concern, the truth is that it is commonly neglected. Now, there is evidence to insist on change – not just to record concern proactively but to build robust systems that respond quickly. As I wrote this column, I kept thinking of the bereft parents who don't need a study to validate their bitter lived experience. No one can remedy their loss but the least healthcare professionals can do is pledge to patients and their carers to never again to put our assumptions before their instincts. Ranjana Srivastava is an Australian oncologist, award-winning author and Fulbright scholar. Her latest book is called A Better Death
Medscape
3 days ago
- Health
- Medscape
New Tool Predicts Pediatric Agitation Risk in the ED
TOPLINE: In a study of pediatric mental and behavioral health (MBH)-related encounters in the emergency department (ED), the 14-item Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents (BRACHA) tool as well as its shortened 5-item version (BRACHA-S) showed strong predictive ability for pediatric agitation that required intervention. METHODOLOGY: This retrospective cohort study included records of patients aged 5-18 years who were evaluated for MBH concerns in the ED from 2012 to 2020 and who completed a BRACHA assessment. A total of 32,906 MBH-related ED visits were analyzed. The primary outcome was agitation requiring intervention, defined as episodes requiring physical or pharmacologic management. Predictive accuracy was evaluated using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC), and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator regression was used to develop BRACHA-S. BRACHA-S scores were used for risk stratification of visits into low-risk (scores 0-1), moderate-risk (scores 2-3), and high-risk (scores 4-5) tiers. TAKEAWAY: About 10.7% of visits involved patients with agitation requiring intervention. BRACHA could strongly predict agitation requiring intervention (AUROC, 0.81; 95% CI, 0.79-0.82). BRACHA-S demonstrated similar predictive accuracy (AUROC, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.78-0.81). Compared with the low-risk tier, the moderate-risk and high-risk tiers showed risk ratios for agitation requiring intervention of 6 and 14, respectively. IN PRACTICE: "This study adds evidence on the accuracy of both the original 14-item Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents and the novel 5-item item Brief Rating of Aggression by Children and Adolescents, shortened version, in predicting agitation requiring intervention in the ED," the authors wrote. "Implementing these tools for early risk assessment may enhance patient safety and optimize resource allocation in emergency settings," they added. SOURCE: The study was led by Bijan Ketabchi, MD, MPH, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, and Lynn Babcock, MD, MS, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati. It was published online on June 11, 2025, in Pediatrics. LIMITATIONS: The study's reliance on retrospective electronic health record data meant its findings might have been influenced by limitations in documentation quality and completeness. The absence of a structured agitation assessment prevented the evaluation of agitation severity, and variations in healthcare providers' perceptions may have introduced bias in determining intervention needs. Being limited to a single regional pediatric referral center may have restricted the generalizability of the findings. Some patients may have required intervention before BRACHA assessment, potentially affecting its predictive value. DISCLOSURES: This study was funded by Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training at the University of Cincinnati provided services, including the REDCap database, through a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award. The authors reported having no conflicts of interest. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Health
- Washington Post
What to know about the pneumonic plague after Arizona patient's death
A person has died of the pneumonic plague at the Flagstaff Medical Center in Arizona, according to Northern Arizona Healthcare, the organization that runs the hospital. The patient arrived at the emergency department and died the same day, a spokesperson for the organization said in an emailed statement. Coconino County, which includes Flagstaff, said it received test results confirming the patient's condition on Friday. The patient was a county resident, it said.
