CJEM
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Observational Study
Can ED chest pain patients with intermediate HEART scores be managed as outpatients?
Current guidelines recommend hospital admission for patients who present to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain and are scored as intermediate risk for adverse outcomes based on the HEART score. While hospital admission for these patients allows for timely investigation and treatment, it is a resource-intensive process. This study examines whether intermediate HEART score patients can be safely managed on an outpatient basis through rapid access chest pain clinics. ⋯ This study demonstrates that rapid access clinics are likely a safe alternative to admission for intermediate-risk chest pain patients and could reduce costly inpatient admissions for chest pain. With angiography excluded, MACE rates were well below the American College of Emergency Physicians cited 2% threshold.
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An innovative program, 'Paramedics Providing Palliative Care at Home,' was implemented in Nova Scotia, Canada in 2015. Roles like this are part of an evolving professional identity; role discordance or lack of clarity not only hinders professionalization but may impair the wellbeing, and career longevity of paramedics. This study explored the alignment of providing palliative support at home with paramedic professional identity. ⋯ Paramedics and palliative health care providers highlighted the provision of palliative care as part of a positive growth of paramedicine as a health profession, and a good fit with professional identity. Novel roles like this are important in the evolution of our health care system faced with increasing pressures to get the right care with the right provider at the right time.
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The primary objective of this study was to measure the risk of return Emergency Department (ED) visits in patients presenting to the ED with a diagnosis of substance-induced psychosis. Secondary objectives included: (1) describing the characteristics of patients returning within 30 days to the ED with substance-induced psychosis, and (2) identifying risk factors associated with such ED return. ⋯ In ED patients with substance-induced psychosis, nearly half of all patients were admitted to hospital, 40% had a 30 days return ED visit, and one-third of those were for substance-induced psychosis. We identified clinically relevant factors common to those returning with recurrent substance-induced psychosis.