Ideal ED length of stay? (information & communications support)

[Ronald Gross]

Ken,

I am going to have to disagree here, and may God have mercy!!  ;-)  

The FAST will tell you whether the unstable patient with a pelvic fracture needs angio or needs to go directly to the OR.  As I see it, bad fracture with negative FAST needs angio; unstable patient with bad fracture and POSITIVE FAST needs OR, ex-lap, packing and then angio.  I am still waiting for the surgical community to fully embrace the extraperitoneal packing before I abandon - or at least temper my use of - angiography.

Ron
>>> <KMATTOX at aol.com> 10/13/2007 12:48 PM >>>
For an emergency room to keep ANY patient who obviously requires admission,  
is not the best use of the resources in that location, whether it be a 
critical  trauma patient, a heart attack, or a pneumonia.   If it is obvious as  to 
where the patient should go (trauma goes to a surgical service, either OR,  
floor, or ICU), then that patient can get the FAST, etc, at that secondary  
location and aid in the overcrowding of the EC.     
 
k



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