Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To profile young, pregnant patients with an overdose reported to an urban poison center; and to characterize the ingestions and short-term outcomes of these overdose patients. ⋯ Pregnancy was a common finding in this sample of young, female, intentional overdose patients reported to our regional poison control center. Frequent use of abortifacients for toxic ingestions has not been previously reported. A pregnancy test should be obtained for all female patients of childbearing age with an intentional ingestion to address the potential association of the ingestion with an unanticipated or undesired pregnancy.
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To summarize the processes used to develop a curriculum and model of care for the emergency medical treatment of elder patients and to assess the efficacy of the teaching material in a pilot course. ⋯ The process of developing a curriculum for geriatric EM is described. The initial training of instructors was effective in improving participants' knowledge of geriatric issues in EM. Participants considered the training to be effective. The effect of the training on the emergency care of elder persons remains to be determined.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of patient satisfaction and practitioner satisfaction with wound appearance after traumatic wound repair.
Existing cosmetic scales for wounds are based only on practitioners' evaluations. They have not been validated using the patient's assessment. ⋯ Lacerations that practitioners considered to have optimal cosmetic appearances at the time of suture removal received higher patient satisfaction scores than did lacerations considered to be suboptimal. This provides a measure of validity to this 6-item categorical cosmetic scale.
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To study the frequency of medical complaints and need for routine ED medical, laboratory, and toxicologic clearance for patients presenting with psychiatric chief complaints. ⋯ The vast majority of medical problems and substance abuse in ED psychiatric patients can be identified by initial vital signs and a basic history and physical examination. Universal laboratory and toxicologic screening of all patients with psychiatric complaints is of low yield.
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To identify clinical factors that predict which patients presenting to the ED with pneumonia will require respiratory isolation for suspected tuberculosis and to evaluate a protocol for rapid identification of patients at risk for pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB). ⋯ Respiratory isolation guidelines for patients admitted from the ED with pneumonia were developed and validated. These guidelines provide satisfactory guidance for isolation of patients at risk for PTB in a high-PTB-prevalence population.