Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Although the passage of blood in stools in children represents a medical emergency, children seeking emergency department (ED) care remain poorly characterized. Our primary objective was to compare clinical characteristics and etiologic pathogens in children with acute diarrhea with and without caregiver-reported hematochezia. Secondary objectives were to characterize interventions and resource utilization. ⋯ In children with acute diarrhea, caregiver report of hematochezia, compared to the absence of hematochezia, was associated with more diarrheal but fewer vomiting episodes, and greater resource consumption. The former group of children was also more likely to have bacteria detected in their stool.
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Emergency department (ED) patients with nonfatal opioid overdose are at high risk for subsequent fatal overdose, yet ED programs aimed at reducing harm from opioid use remain underdeveloped. ⋯ A statewide ED take-home naloxone program was shown to be feasible across a range of different hospitals with varying maturity in preexisting OUD resources and capabilities. Future work will be aimed at both expanding and measuring the effectiveness of this work.
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Observational Study
Resource utilization and outcomes among children risk stratified by pediatric appendicitis risk calculator (pARC) at a tertiary pediatric center.
Appendicitis is a common pediatric condition requiring surgery. The pediatric appendicitis risk calculator (pARC) was recently developed to guide clinical care. The objective of this study is to describe resource utilization and clinical outcomes among children with appendix ultrasound (US) scans risk stratified by pARC score. ⋯ There is a high rate of resource utilization among patients who are low appendicitis risk by pARC score. Outcome variation by pARC scores presents future opportunity to selectively reduce resource utilization in pediatric patients.