Retraining ER workers improves outcomes

BALTIMORE, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Some say practice makes perfect and U.S. researchers found this was true when it came to improving hospital child resuscitation outcomes.

Lead investigator Dr. Elizabeth Hunt of The Johns Hopkins Children's Center in Baltimore and colleagues at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., report child resuscitation failures are widespread. However, simple refreshers -- a mock trauma drill to diagnose the shortcomings and brief refreshers to get emergency room workers' performance sharp again -- can improve patient outcomes.

For example, following the refresher, the number of emergency rooms properly estimating a child's weight nearly doubled; the number of emergency rooms correctly assessing consciousness in a child nearly quadrupled; twice as many emergency rooms teams properly started an IV through the bone; more than twice as many ordered the correct anti-seizure medications; and more than twice as many correctly prepared a child for transport to CT scanners or operating rooms.

The study, published in Pediatric Emergency Care, found that scores on 37 of the 44 child resuscitation tasks improved, and scores on 11 of the most important ones improved significantly.