Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Multicenter Study
Developing Emergency Department-based Education About Emergency Contraception: Adolescent Preferences.
The objective was to identify adolescent preferences for emergency department (ED)-based education about emergency contraception. ⋯ Adolescents have specific preferences for how education about emergency contraception would best serve their needs. This information can inform clinicians as they work to improve adolescents' knowledge about pregnancy prevention and emergency contraception in particular.
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Comparative Study Observational Study
Use of Butterfly Needles to Draw Blood Is Independently Associated With Marked Reduction in Hemolysis Compared to Intravenous Catheter.
Hemolysis of blood samples drawn in the emergency department (ED) is a common problem that can interfere with timely diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The objective of this study was to identify the smallest number of remediable factors that independently increases the risk of hemolysis to design an effective strategy to address this issue. ⋯ The device used to collect blood was the strongest independent predictor of hemolysis in blood samples drawn in the ED in this study. This finding suggests that the most effective strategy to reduce the rate of hemolysis in the ED is to use butterfly needles for phlebotomy rather than IV catheters.
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The diagnostic values of the aVR lead or "Vereckei algorithm," and the lead II R-wave peak time (RWPT) criterion, recently devised for the differential diagnosis of wide QRS complex tachycardias (WCTs), were compared. ⋯ The Vereckei algorithm was superior in overall test accuracy, sensitivity, and NPV for VT diagnosis and inferior in specificity and PPV to the RWPT criterion. All of these parameters were lower in "real life" than those reported by the original authors for each of the particular electrocardiographic methods.
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In this commentary, common misperceptions about education research, and specifically for emergency medicine education research, are addressed. Recommendations for designing and publishing high-quality projects are also provided.
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There has been a steady increase in emergency department (ED) patient volume and wait times. The desire to maintain or decrease costs while improving throughput requires novel approaches to patient flow. The break-out session "Interventions to Improve the Timeliness of Emergency Care" at the June 2011 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference "Interventions to Assure Quality in the Crowded Emergency Department" posed the challenge for more research of the split Emergency Severity Index (ESI) 3 patient flow model. A split ESI 3 patient flow model divides high-variability ESI 3 patients from low-variability ESI 3 patients. The study objective was to determine the effect of implementing a split ESI 3 flow model has on patient length of stay (LOS) for discharged patients. ⋯ A split ESI 3 patient flow model improves door-to-discharge LOS in the ED.