Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Observational Study
Integrating Point-of-care Testing Into a Community Emergency Department: A Mixed-methods Evaluation.
Point-of-care testing (POCT) is a commonly used technology that hastens the time to laboratory results in emergency departments (ED). We evaluated an ED-based POCT program on ED length of stay (LOS) and time to care, coupled with qualitative interviews of local ED stakeholders. ⋯ In the study ED, implementation of POCT was associated with a reduction in time to test result for both troponin and chemistry. Local staff felt that faster time to test result improved quality of care; however, concerns were raised with POCT accuracy.
-
Interruptions can adversely impact human performance, particularly in fast-paced and high-risk environments such as the emergency department (ED). Understanding physician behaviors before, during, and after interruptions is important to the design and promotion of safe and effective workflow solutions. However, traditional human factors-based interruption models do not accurately reflect the complexities of real-world environments like the ED and may not capture multiple interruptions and multitasking. ⋯ Using this framework provides a more detailed description of physician behaviors in complex environments. Understanding the different types of interruption and resumption patterns, which may have a different impact on performance, can support the design of interruption mitigation strategies.
-
This systematic review provides an assessment of the diagnostic accuracy of various historical, physical, and clinical examination features for aortic dissection. Nine articles were included, with moderate to high heterogeneity. Limitations to general practice include risk of selection bias and partial verification bias. Risk scores were included, but their use is not recommended at this time.