Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Patients with acute heart failure (AHF) are commonly misdiagnosed and undertreated in the prehospital setting. These delays in diagnosis and treatment have a direct negative impact on patient outcomes. The goal of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of paramedics with and without the use of lung ultrasound (LUS) for the diagnosis of AHF in patients with dyspnea in the prehospital setting. Secondarily, we assessed LUS impact on rate of and time to initiation of HF therapies. ⋯ LUS improved paramedic sensitivity and accuracy for diagnosing AHF in the prehospital setting. LUS use led to higher rates of prehospital HF therapy initiation and significantly decreased time to treatment.
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Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) need frequent emergency care due to flares of their disease. However, understanding which patients are most vulnerable to repeat emergency care due to recurrent flares of their disease remains poor. ⋯ Our study identified multiple patient characteristics associated with higher recurrent short-term use of the ED for IBD care. Although we did not find prompt outpatient follow-up after initial ED visit to be protective, targeted interventions directed at high-risk individuals based on mood disorders, opiate use, or steroid use may help to optimize care and health care utilization.
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This study aims to assess the change in cervical spine (C-spine) immobilization frequency in trauma patients over time. We hypothesize that the frequency of unnecessary C-spine immobilization has decreased. ⋯ Unnecessary C-spine stabilization has decreased from 2014 to 2021. However, c-collars are still being applied to patients who do not need them, both in blunt and in penetrating trauma cases, while not being applied to patients who would benefit from them.