Annals of emergency medicine
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We sought to initiate an emergency department (ED)-based ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia (UGRA) program in our community teaching hospital system. Here, we present our development process and protocol. We also sought to assess the types, indications, and associated adverse event rates for the UGRA procedures in this study. ⋯ We successfully initiated a robust ED-based UGRA program in our community teaching hospital system. Among patients with successful follow-up, no adverse events were identified.
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To determine whether insurance status can function as a sufficient proxy for socioeconomic status in emergency medicine research by examining the concordance between insurance status and direct socioeconomic status measures in a sample of pediatric patients. ⋯ Insurance status misclassified socioeconomic status in up to 23% of pediatric patients, as measured by caregivers' education and income. Emergency medicine studies of pediatric patients using insurance as a covariate to adjust for socioeconomic status may need to consider this misclassification and the resulting potential for bias. These findings require confirmation in larger, more diverse samples, including adult patients.