@article{4be6ef012d244ce4b48ec3d7d86597aa,
title = "Emergency department technicians in a University-County Hospital: A 15-year experience",
abstract = "Technicians have assisted physicians in many specialty areas in which a small number of procedures and limited expertise could be quickly mastered and used regularly. We describe a program of training and graded responsibility of emergency department technicians focusing on laceration and wound care, splinting, IV catheter placement, and other procedures for critically ill or injured patients. Infection rates of wounds sutured by technicians are comparable to those reported by physicians using similar techniques. In a time of nursing shortages, technicians are an alternative for supplementing the traditional providers of emergency care.",
keywords = "allied health, emergency department",
author = "Sklar, {David P.} and Mary Herring and Roth, {Paul B.} and Ronald Besante",
note = "Funding Information: The University of New Mexico Hospital is a 330-bed tertiary-care regional referral center designated as New Mexico's only Level I trauma center. The hospital receives partial funding from the County of Bernalillo for the care of indigents, and the medical staff are faculty in the school of medicine paid primarily by state funds. The faculty supervise interns and residents and provide primary patient care. In 1986, 37,791 patients were treated in the ED, and an additional 7,158 patients were treated in a fast-track urgent care center connected with the ED. Approximately 11% of the patients seen in our ED are hospitalized, and 30% of all hospital admissions come from the ED. Our ED always has one attending faculty physician providing care and supervision for an average of two interns and two medical students. Since July 1988, there also have been second-year emergency medicine residents in the ED. Other staffing includes three or four nurses and two or three technicians. The average time from check-in to discharge in our ED is two hours and 20 minutes.",
year = "1989",
month = apr,
doi = "10.1016/S0196-0644(89)80579-7",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "18",
pages = "401--405",
journal = "Annals of Emergency Medicine",
issn = "0196-0644",
publisher = "Mosby Inc.",
number = "4",
}