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The Blood Vessel, Brain, and Immune System Connections
Published in Mark C Houston, The Truth About Heart Disease, 2023
All of us have experienced a fast heart rate, skipping of the heart with palpitations—perhaps some chest pain or even shortness of breath—sweating, dizziness, headache, high blood pressure, or other symptoms when we have anxiety, stress, a panic attack, or get angry. These reactions are very rapid, can last for a while, and be very frightening. You imagine that something is wrong with your heart. You may even go to the emergency department to be seen by a physician. What you experience are the very fast connections that occur through your brain and nervous system to your heart, arteries, gut, and immune system. This is the “brain-heart-immune system connection”. Chronic stress, anxiety, and depression increase the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD) and myocardial infarction (MI) through a complex messaging system that increases the “sympathetic nervous system activity”. This will now be discussed in detail.
Health Disparities
Published in Gia Merlo, Kathy Berra, Lifestyle Nursing, 2023
Yvonne Commodore-Mensah, Ruth-Alma Turkson-Ocran, Oluwabunmi Ogungbe, Samuel Byiringiro, Diana-Lyn Baptiste
The lack of equitable access to healthcare has been a long-standing problem in the US, underscoring the need for healthcare providers to pay close attention to those who have limited access (Arnett et al., 2019). Research shows that limited or no access to health services is associated with poorer health outcomes (Derose et al., 2011). Access to healthcare is highly dependent on social, environmental, and structural factors. Social determinants of health such as race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status (SES), occupation, immigrant status, and rural or urban residence play a significant role in healthcare access and use of quality health services (Singh et al., 2017). There are marked disparities in the access, utilization, and affordability of healthcare. For example, those without health insurance may use the emergency department of hospitals to manage acute and chronic health problems, lacking the continuity of care and preventive health education needed to effectively manage these conditions. Additionally, access to healthcare does not necessarily equate with quality health services.
Artificial Intelligence and Hospital Automation
Published in Salvatore Volpe, Health Informatics, 2022
When patients have cause to visit emergency departments, their first interaction is often triage. Accurate triage is essential because it quickly establishes the basics of patient condition and assigns a level of urgency to the timeline of care for that individual. Getting triage right means that the resources of an emergency department are appropriately meted to each patient in the proper order. At NYP, we have found that offering low-risk patients the option of telemedicine can be beneficial both in quicker care and discharge for those who choose it and in keeping our exam rooms open for the most urgent cases, where telemedicine would not be appropriate. I mention telemedicine, not because it is an example of AI, but because it is an example of technology improving patient experience by enhancing the ability of physicians to efficiently care for patients.
Need for social work interventions in the emergency department
Published in Social Work in Health Care, 2023
Jobin Tom, Elizabeth K. Thomas, A. Sooraj, Seema P. Uthaman, Harish M. Tharayil, Akhil S.L., Chandni Radhakrishnan
An emergency department is part of a hospital that provides 24/7 emergency care to patients who need urgent medical attention. Emergency Department (ED) medical teams provide trauma treatment, triage for admission into the hospital for acute medical conditions, as well as medical care to those who do not or cannot access primary care. Patients with multiple medical, social, and economic needs also utilize the ED as a safety net system of care. The availability of low-cost tertiary level care treatment in the government hospitals, as opposed to the relatively high cost of treatment in private hospitals, may be a factor in choosing health care services in the emergency departments as well as the increased patient load. One of the critical aspects in the operation of an emergency department is the prioritization of cases based on clinical needs, known as triage. It is the first stage through which every patient goes when they are availing ED services and consists of a brief assessment and later assigned to another area of the department.
Understanding barriers and facilitators to speech-language pathology service delivery in the emergency department
Published in International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2023
Pranika B. Lal, Laurelie R. Wishart, Elizabeth C. Ward, Maria Schwarz, Marnie Seabrook, Anne Coccetti
The emergency department (ED) plays an integral role in providing acute assessment and intervention for individuals with primary and secondary diseases and is often the first point of contact within the hospital system for patients who present with life-threatening conditions or sudden illness or injury (Anderson, Petrino, Halpern, & Tintinalli, 2006; Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, 2014; Cowling, Soljak, Bell, & Majeed, 2014). EDs are often the entry point to further inpatient hospital care, and where patient care coordination first occurs (Cowling et al., 2014). Although designed to manage medical emergencies, ED services are also accessed by patients with non-urgent medical conditions, resulting in high service demand (Cusick, Johnson, & Bissett, 2009). During the 2017/2018 financial year, more than eight million patients presented to Australian EDs, with patients aged 65 years and over accounting for over 22% of these presentations (Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, 2017). A third of those patients presenting to the ED were subsequently admitted to hospital (Australian Institute of Health & Welfare, 2017).
Measuring patient satisfaction in emergency department: An empirical test using structural equation modeling
Published in International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2023
Nimesh P. Bhojak, Ashwin Modi, Jayesh D. Patel, Mahesh Patel
‘Emergency’ word brings the need of immediate attention, [100] ease of accessibility and empathy to the patient. The ease of accessibility to care and immediate attention brings a new construct in the field of patient satisfaction named as Access to care. It involves ease of accessibility aspect through reduced waiting time, ease of access to technical expertise and resources that matches the patient needs. Interestingly, previous studies reported that waiting time is clinically and statistically significant and important predictor in multivariate model [101–105]. Therefore, healthcare providers shall put efforts towards shortening waiting time, communicate for any delay and improving patients’ perceptions about waiting in the emergency department [106]. In fact, waiting time increases the burden of indirect cost to providers and the participating patient [104,107]. It has also been argued that patients are dissatisfied with the increased cost [34] and delay in care due to shortage of primary care clinicians in the emergency department [108]. Research to date has identified influence of convenience, location, institutional preference and access to other physicians on patient satisfaction in ED [109]. Therefore, it is pertinent to understand the association of patient satisfaction to convenient medical care from the healthcare organizations [110].