Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Current outpatient diagnostic algorithms for urinary tract infection (UTI) in older adults require the presence of classic signs and symptoms of UTI, such as fever and genitourinary symptoms. However, older adults with UTI may present with atypical signs and symptoms. The objective was to identify the associations of age and nursing home status with the clinical presentation of emergency department (ED) patients diagnosed with UTI. ⋯ Fever and urinary tract symptoms are absent in a large proportion of adults over 65 years of age diagnosed with UTI in the ED. Age over 65 years and nursing home residence are associated with increased presence of altered mental status and with lack of urinary tract symptoms. Nursing home residence is also associated with increased presence of fever. Emergency physicians (EPs) continue to diagnose UTI in patients without classic symptoms. Diagnostic criteria for UTI among adults 65 years and over specifically designed for use in the acute care setting should be developed and validated to prevent both inappropriate overdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of UTI.
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Patient and parent satisfaction are important measures of quality of care. Data are lacking regarding satisfaction with emergency procedures, including laceration repair. The objective was to define the elements of care that are important to parents during a pediatric laceration repair and to determine the predictors of excellent parent satisfaction. ⋯ Provider performance, which comprises the elements of physician communication, caring attitude, confidence, and hygiene, is the strongest predictor of excellent parent satisfaction for pediatric patients with ED visits for laceration repair.
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Patient care transitions across specialties involve more complexity than those within the same specialty, yet the unique social and technical features remain underexplored. Further, little consensus exists among researchers and practitioners about strategies to improve interspecialty communication. This concept article addresses these gaps by focusing on the hand-off process between emergency and hospital medicine physicians. ⋯ Quality measures are proposed within the structure, process, and outcome framework for institutions seeking to evaluate and monitor improvement strategies in hand-off performance. Validation studies to determine if these suggested improvements in transition communication will result in improved patient outcomes will be necessary. By exploring the dynamics of transition communication between specialties and suggesting best practices, the authors hope to strengthen hand-off skills and contribute to improved continuity of care.