A 50 year old patient with a fractured wrist comes into a small town Emergency Department. The risk requires reduction back to a normal position. The patient is transported to a larger center 4 hours away by ambulance. At the larger center, the patient received intravenous sedation in the emergency department and the fracture is reduced and casted. Follow-up is arranged for 1 week later.
The strategic initiative to confirm simple, safe methods of sedation and analgesia for procedural sedation will provide clear information to develop safe procedural sedation guidelines. Coupled with the knowledge translation initiative all physicians in this situation will be empowered to treat these simple orthopedic problems on site and avoid two uncomfortable, costly, and unnecessary ambulance transports.
Effectively sharing new knowledge that is important to best practice across a large province is complicated. Drs. Kendal Ho, Julian Marsden and Helen Novak-Lauscher are experts at engaging physicians and learning how best to share important information in the ever-changing world of electronic technology. They aim to build a platform to rapidly share important new research with all emergency practitioners in BC.