To evaluate the ability of the Modified Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation (M-APACHE II) scoring system for the prediction of mortality in patients admitted to a tertiary emergency department in Iran. Methods: During the study period, all patients aged >12 years who had been admitted to the emergency department of a tertiary hospital in Tehran, Iran were enrolled in the study. Traumatic and poisoned patients and those who died immediately after arriving at the emergency room were excluded. Using the M-APACHE II, risk of mortality was calculated for each patient. Finally, expected and observed mortalities were compared and the accuracy of M-APACHE II for prediction of mortality was determined using receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis. Results: During the study period, 389 cases including 236 males (60.7%) were enrolled into the study. The mean age of the patients was 60.6±19.4 years (range 14 to 98 years). 117 patients died (30%) while the M-APACHE II predicted 129 deaths. The greatest discrepancy between observed and expected deaths occurred at M-APACHE II scores ≥21. The constructed area under the ROC curve basng on predicted and observed death was 0.938 (95% confidence interval 0.915-0.961). Conclusion: M-APACHE II is an accurate scoring system for predicting mortality in patients admitted to the emergency department. However, further studies are needed to confirm our findings.

Introduction Nursing personnel are always at risk for work-related musculoskeletal disorders, and patient transportation is one of the major risk factor for these disorders. Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate the ergonomic belt to improve patient transferring conditions. Methods The subjects included 60 health care workers (HCW) of a hospital with patient transfer experience. The ergonomic belt was examined to help move the patient from one bed to another. The prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders was assessed through the Nordic questionnaire, the degree of perceived exertion through the Borg criterion, and the patient's movement through the MAPO index before and after the intervention. Results The results showed a significant decrease in Borg scale scores and MAPO index in two factors of education and auxiliary tools and overall scores of this index. We also saw a significant reduction in musculoskeletal disorders in the neck, shoulders and arms, waist, hands and wrists, thighs, knees and legs. There were no significant differences in the elbow and forearm before and after using the ergonomic belt. Conclusion In general, it can be concluded that the use of ergonomic belt had helped to reduce the risk of musculoskeletal disorders, as well as reducing the perceived exertion of nurses and other relevant personnel.