title: EKG at triage slashes door-to-aspirin time.
abstract: Giving all chest pain patients an electrocardiogram (EKG) in triage can significantly improve treatment times and quality of care and it eliminates the need to prioritize patients and takes undue pressure off the nurses, ED managers say. Triage delays in chest pain evaluation are eliminated by giving all patients the same treatment. Time to first aspirin at one hospital was slashed from 67 minutes to eight minutes. Asking nurses to differentiate patients on the basis of an interview and a set of vitals is unrealistic, managers say.
mesh_terms: D001241:Aspirin / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002140:California; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014218:Triage
chemical_list: D001241:Aspirin