Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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We sought to evaluate the impact of an emergency psychiatric assessment, treatment, and healing (EmPATH) unit on emergency department (ED) revenue, psychiatric boarding time, and length of stay (LOS). ⋯ The EmPATH unit had a positive impact on ED revenue and decreased ED boarding time and LOS for psychiatric patients.
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Review
Identifying Maltreatment in Infants and Young Children Presenting with Fractures: Does Age Matter?
Child abuse is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in preverbal children who cannot explain their injuries. Fractures are among the most common injuries associated with abuse but of themselves fractures may not be recognized as abusive until a comprehensive child abuse evaluation is completed, often prompted by other signs or subjective features. We sought to determine which children presenting with rib or long-bone fractures should undergo a routine abuse evaluation based on age. ⋯ Among children who were not in an independently verified incident, the authors strongly recommend routine evaluation for child abuse, including specialty child abuse consultation, for: 1) children aged less than 3 years old presenting with rib fractures and 2) children aged less than 18 months presenting with humeral or femoral fractures (Level of Evidence: III Review).
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We aimed to develop and test a tool to engage parents of febrile infants ≤ 60 days of age evaluated in the emergency department (ED). The tool was designed to improve communication for all parents and to support shared decision-making (SDM) about whether to perform a lumbar puncture (LP) for infants 29 to 60 days of age. ⋯ The e-Care app is a useable and understandable tool to support communication and SDM with parents of febrile infants ≤ 60 days of age in the ED.
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The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of changing the laboratory-reported D-dimer reference intervals to age-adjusted reference intervals on the use of advanced chest imaging and 30-day adverse events among emergency department (ED) encounters. ⋯ Changing the laboratory-reported D-dimer reference intervals for evaluation of PE was not associated with reduction in advanced chest imaging and did not increase 30-day adverse events. However, there was substantial noncompliance with the age-adjusted reference intervals in the postintervention period likely blunting the impact of this intervention.