Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Various forms of bias exist in medicine, including race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and weight bias. Weight bias has not received as much attention in the literature as other forms of bias. More often when discussing weight bias, the discussion is with regard to physician to patient bias, or patient to physician. In this article, we summarize the study performed by McLean et al. as well as the podcast and discussion, and social media commentary, in which the investigators evaluate the presence of physician to physician weight bias.
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Despite evidence demonstrating the safety and efficacy of buprenorphine for the treatment of emergency department (ED) patients with opioid use disorder (OUD), incorporation into clinical practice has been highly variable. We explored barriers and facilitators to the prescription of buprenorphine, as perceived by practicing ED clinicians. ⋯ While some participants were hesitant to adopt a "new" role in treating patients with medications for OUD, many already had and gave concrete strategies regarding how to encourage others to embrace their attitude of "this is part of emergency medicine now."
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Delayed diagnosis of cerebrovascular disease (CVD) among patients can result in substantial harm. If diagnostic process failures can be identified at emergency department (ED) visits that precede CVD hospitalization, interventions to improve diagnostic accuracy can be developed. ⋯ We found that 0.6% of patients with an ED headache visit had subsequent CVD hospitalization, often at another medical center. ED visits for headache complaints among patients with prior stroke or neurosurgical procedures may be important opportunities for CVD prevention. Documented neurologic examinations were poorer among cases, which may represent an opportunity for ED process improvement.
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Earlier initial antibiotic treatment for febrile neutropenia is associated with improved clinical outcomes. This study was conducted to evaluate the association of an emergency department (ED) intervention protocol with time to initial antibiotic treatment for febrile neutropenia patients. ⋯ The intervention protocol was associated with a significant reduction in time to initial antibiotics for ED patients with febrile neutropenia. This association appears to be facilitated through specific intermediate process-of-care variables. A larger multicenter study is needed to assess the potential effects of an ED febrile neutropenia protocol on patient-centered clinical outcomes and resource utilization.