PURPOSE: The Injury Severity Score (ISS) has limited predictive power and is difficult to calculate. We used the New Injury Severity Score (NISS) and compared it to the ISS. The purpose of this study was to give a prognosis and predict the mortality for trauma patients by using the ISS and the NISS and to compare Trauma and Injury Severity Score (TRISS) method using NISS with the TRISS method using ISS. METHODS: A retrospective study of 100 trauma victims who visited the emergency room of Kyungpook National University Hospital from September 2000 to May 2001 was made using the ISS, the NISS, and the TRISS methods. RESULTS: A comparison between survivors and nonsurvivors showed differences in the revised trauma score (RTS), ISS, NISS, and TRISS Ps-1 by using RTS and the ISS and TRISS Ps-2 by using RTS and NISS (p<0.01). We found that the NISS was more predictive of survival than the ISS. A receiver operating curve analysis and Hosmer Lemeshow statistics showed that both the NISS and the ISS provided a good fit throughout its entire range of prediction. CONCLUSION: By comparing the ISS with the NISS, we concluded that the NISS better separated survivors from nonsurvivors. The NISS predicted survival better and was easier to calculate than the ISS. The results of the TRISS method using NISS were satisfactory, and we expect to use this method in quality assessment with further study and modification.
Emergency Service, Hospital ; Gyeongsangbuk-do ; Humans ; Injury Severity Score ; Mortality ; Prognosis ; Retrospective Studies ; Survivors

The poisoning information database (PIDB) provides clinical toxicological information on commonly encountered toxic substances in Korea. The aim of this study was to estimate the coverage rate of the PIDB by comparing the database with the distribution of toxic substances that real poisoning patients presented to 20 emergency departments. Development of the PIDB started in 2007, and the number of toxic substances increased annually from 50 to 470 substances in 2014. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with toxic exposure who visited 20 emergency departments in Korea from January to December 2013. Identified toxic substances were classified as prescription drug, agricultural chemical, household product, animal or plant, herbal drug, or other. We calculated the coverage rate of the PIDB for both the number of poisoning cases and the kinds of toxic substances. A total of 10,887 cases of intoxication among 8,145 patients was collected. The 470 substances registered in the PIDB covered 89.3% of 8,891 identified cases related to poisoning, while the same substances only covered 45.3% of the 671 kinds of identified toxic substances. According to category, 211 prescription drugs, 58 agricultural chemicals, 28 household products, and 32 animals or plants were not covered by the PIDB. This study suggested that the PIDB covered a large proportion of real poisoning cases in Korea. However, the database should be continuously extended to provide information for even rare toxic substances.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Animals ; Animals, Poisonous ; Child ; Child, Preschool ; Databases, Factual ; Drugs, Chinese Herbal/poisoning ; Emergency Service, Hospital ; Female ; Humans ; Infant ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Pesticides/poisoning ; Plants, Medicinal/poisoning ; Poisoning/*epidemiology ; Prescription Drugs/poisoning ; Republic of Korea ; Retrospective Studies ; Young Adult

PURPOSE: An internship is a very generally a stressful period during medical training in general. Working in the Emergency Department (ED) is especially difficult and stressful because of its unique clinical environment. Our goal was to determine the level of the depression, fatigue, sleep disorders and stress of interns in the ED. METHODS: A questionnaire was distributed to 430 interns who are working or had worked in the ED. The questionnaire included questions about general characteristics and scales relating to symptoms of depression, fatigue, sleep disorder and stress. RESULTS: Of the 430 questionnaires given out, 178(41.4%) were returned. The mean age of the participants was 28.4+/-2.9, and 123(69.5%) were male. Also, 112(63.3%) participants were working at an alumni-affiliated hospital or at related hospital. The interns at an unrelated hospital experienced more discrimination than those working at an alumni-related hospital (21.5% vs. 9.8%, respectively, p=0.031). Also, female interns experienced more sexual harassment than male interns (16.7% vs. 2.4%, respectively, p=0.001). The average score for medical outcomes study MOS sleep scale, Beck Depression Inventory, Fatigue Severity Scale and Cohen Perceived Stress Scale were 16.2+/-4.0, 8.0+/-7.8, 4.3+/-1.2 and 19.4+/-5.4, respectively. The degree of participation in treating patients first hand (OR 2.33, 95% CI=1.19-4.57), experiencing discrimination (OR 3.17, 95% CI=1.15-8.73) and long working hours (OR 2.02, 95% CI=1.05-3.86) had a significant effect on stress and depression. CONCLUSION: The interns who worked at an ED had higher fatigue and stress scores compared to ordinary person. Also, participation, discrimination and working hours may be good to mention. Therefore, more research and effort is required to improve the factors that cause fatigue, stress and depression of the interns in ED.
Depression ; Discrimination (Psychology) ; Emergencies ; Emergency Medicine ; Fatigue ; Female ; Hand ; Humans ; Internship and Residency ; Male ; Surveys and Questionnaires ; Sexual Harassment ; Sleep Wake Disorders ; Weights and Measures