Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Identifying patients in the emergency department (ED) at higher risk for in-hospital mortality can inform shared decision making and goals-of-care discussions. Electronic health record systems allow for integrated multivariable logistic regression (LR) modeling, which can provide early predictions of mortality risk in time for crucial decision making during a patient's initial care. Many commonly used LR models require blood gas analysis values, which are not frequently obtained in the ED. The goal of this study was to develop an all-cause mortality prediction model, derived from commonly collected ED data, which can assess mortality risk early in ED care. ⋯ The EDEM model was predictive of in-hospital mortality and was superior to REMS.
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We applied three electronic triggers to study frequency and contributory factors of missed opportunities for improving diagnosis (MOIDs) in pediatric emergency departments (EDs): return visits within 10 days resulting in admission (Trigger 1), care escalation within 24 h of ED presentation (Trigger 2), and death within 24 h of ED visit (Trigger 3). ⋯ Using electronic triggers with selective record review is an effective process to screen for harmful diagnostic errors in EDs: detailed review of 5% of charts revealed MOIDs in half, of which half were harmful to the patient. With further refining, triggers can be used as effective patient safety tools to monitor diagnostic quality.
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The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) derived and externally validated a clinical prediction rule to identify children with blunt torso trauma at low risk for intraabdominal injuries undergoing acute intervention (IAIAI). Little is known about the risk for IAIAI when only one or two prediction rule variables are positive. We sought to determine the risk for IAIAI when either one or two PECARN intraabdominal injury rule variables are positive. ⋯ Few children with blunt torso trauma and one or two PECARN predictor variables present have IAIAI. Those with GCS score <14, however, are at highest risk for IAIAI.
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This study aimed to clarify the appropriate timing for epinephrine administration in adults with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), particularly those cases with nonshockable rhythms, by addressing resuscitation time bias. ⋯ Epinephrine administration within 10 min of EMS personnel contact may be associated with favorable neurological outcomes in patients with OHCA and nonshockable rhythms.