Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Infection severity as determined by clinical criteria has been recently classified and studied in hospitalized inpatients. The objective of the study was to use modified criteria to determine the clinical course associated with three levels of infection severity in infected patients admitted from the ED. ⋯ Although the strongest correlate of a complicated clinical course identified in the ED is SS as defined by the study criteria, its specificity and PPV are low. The mortality of ED patients with SS is much lower than the mortality rates reported for inpatients with SS. SS as defined by the study criteria is too sensitive and therefore lacks utility in the ED setting.
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To compare the use of emergency medical care by elders in the United States in 1995 with that previously described for 1990. ⋯ From 1990 to 1995, the overall number of ED visits increased. The rate of increase was somewhat greater for elder patients. The use of ambulance services also disproportionately grew among elder patients, as did the rate of hospital admission. The overall rate of ICU admission was stable, but actually fell modestly for elder patients. Of these changes, only the increase in the rate of hospital admission for elders reached statistical significance.
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The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), with the support and participation of the American Board of Emergency Medicine (ABEM), the Council of Residency Directors (CORD), the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), the Emergency Medicine Residents Association (EMRA), the American Academy of Emergency Medicine (AAEM), and the Association of Academic Chairs of Emergency Medicine (AACEM), initiated a project entitled Professionalism in Emergency Medicine. Its concepts were developed by the SAEM Ethics Committee, and are intended to describe proper behaviors and attitudes of the successful practitioner of emergency medicine. The behaviors described are not primarily scientific or technical, since those are defined by the core curriculum for residency training and are tested through certification examinations. ⋯ While no physician is likely to meet idealized standards, all EPs must meet basic standards while striving for the ideal. Awareness of these standards must begin early in the socialization process of emergency medical professionals. The standards must be integrated into residency training as well as the clinical practice of all EPs.
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The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) commissioned an emergency medicine (EM) faculty salary and benefit survey for all 1995 Residency Review Committee in Emergency Medicine (RRC-EM)-accredited programs using the SAEM third-generation survey instrument. Responses were collected by SAEM and blinded from the investigators. ⋯ Reported salaries for full-time EM residency faculty continue to rise. Salaries in programs reporting data to the AAMC are considerably lower than those not reporting. The gap between ABEM-certified and non-ABEM-certified faculty continues to widen. Residency-trained faculty are now shown to earn more than non-residency-trained faculty. Significant regional differences in salaries have been present in all three SAEM surveys.