Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Our objective was to quantify trends in emergency medical services (EMS) incidents as the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the United States and to determine if there was an increase in EMS-attended deaths. ⋯ We found that early in the COVID-19 outbreak there was a significant decrease in the number of EMS responses across the United States. Simultaneously the rate of EMS-attended death doubled, while the rate of injuries decreased.
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The objective was to assess anxiety and burnout levels, home life changes, and measures to relieve stress of U.S. academic emergency medicine (EM) physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic acceleration phase. ⋯ During the acceleration phase, the COVID-19 pandemic has induced substantial workplace and home anxiety in academic EM physicians, and their exposure during work has had a major impact on their home lives. Measures cited to decrease stress include enhanced availability of PPE, rapid turnaround testing at provider discretion, and clear communication about COVID-19 protocol changes.
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The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Opioid Safety Initiative (OSI) was implemented in 2013 and was associated with a 25% relative decrease in the dispensing of opioids. Although emergency department (ED) providers play a role in the initiation and continuation of opioids, the incumbent OSI did not target EDs. ⋯ Due to the high volume of patients and the vital role the ED plays in patient treatment and hospital admissions, it is evident that the ED is an important site for QI programs as well as the implementation of opioid safety measures. Given the findings of this pilot, we believe that implementation of a national Veterans Affairs ED OSI implementation is feasible practice.