Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Higher resource utilization in the management of pediatric patients with undifferentiated vomiting and/or diarrhea does not correlate consistently with improved outcomes or quality of care. Performance feedback has been shown to change physician practice behavior and may be a mechanism to minimize practice variation. We aimed to evaluate the effects of e-mail-only, provider-level performance feedback on the ordering and admission practice variation of pediatric emergency physicians for patients presenting with undifferentiated vomiting and/or diarrhea. ⋯ Performance feedback provided only via e-mail to pediatric emergency physicians on a quarterly basis does not seem to significantly impact management practices for patients with undifferentiated vomiting and/or diarrhea.
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Evidence suggests that, despite routine engagement with the health system, pregnant women commonly seek emergency care. The objectives of this study were to examine the association between maternal comorbidities and emergency department (ED) use among a national sample of commercially insured pregnant women. ⋯ Among pregnant women, comorbidity burden was associated with more ED utilization. Efforts to reduce acute unscheduled care and improve care coordination during pregnancy should target interventions to patient comorbidity.
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Observational Study
A 0h/1h protocol for safe early discharge of chest pain patients.
Guidelines recommend a 0-hour/1-hour high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T (hs-cTnT) diagnostic strategy in acute chest pain patients. There are, however, little data on the performance of this strategy when combined with clinical risk stratification. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of an accelerated diagnostic protocol (ADP) using the 0-hour/1-hour hs-cTnT strategy together with an adapted Thrombolysis In Myocardial Infarction (TIMI) score and electrocardiogram (ECG) for ruling out major adverse cardiac events (MACE) within 30 days. ⋯ An ADP using the guideline recommended 0-hour/1-hour hs-cTnT strategy rapidly identified patients with a very low risk of 30-day MACE including UA where no further cardiac testing would be needed. This could potentially allow safe early discharge of about 40% of ED chest pain patients.