Medical care
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Emergency departments (EDs) routinely provide care for patients seeking treatment for painful conditions; however, they are also targeted by people seeking opioid analgesics for nonmedical use. This study determined the prevalence of indicators of potential ED opioid misuse and inappropriate prescription practices by ED providers in a large, commercially insured, adult population. ⋯ In some instances, the prescribing of opioid analgesics in EDs might not be optimal in terms of minimizing the risk of their misuse. Guidelines for the cautious use of opioid analgesics in EDs and timely data from prescription drug monitoring programs could help EDs treat patients with pain while reducing the risk of nonmedical use.
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Hospitalizations represent a significant portion of the annual expenditures for the US health care system. Understanding recent changes in the sources of unscheduled admissions may provide opportunities to improve the quality and cost of inpatient care. ⋯ Sources of unscheduled hospitalization in the United States have evolved, mostly resulting from care for a variety of clinical conditions now originating in the ED. This trend does not seem to be harming patients or worsening LOS.
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The Electronic Data Methods (EDM) Forum, with support from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, exists to advance knowledge and practice on the use of electronic clinical data (ECD) for comparative effectiveness research, patient-centered outcomes research, and quality improvement (QI). The EDM Forum facilitates collaboration between the Prospective Outcome Systems using Patient-specific Electronic data to Compare Tests and therapies, Scalable Distributed Research Network, and Enhanced registry projects funded by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ⋯ The papers in this supplement provide lessons learned based on experiences building transparent, scalable, reusable networks for research and QI. Through these papers, and a new open access e-journal, eGEMs, the EDM Forum is working to advance the science of health research and QI using ECD to improve patient outcomes.