Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The objective was to characterize geriatric patients' use of online health information (OHI) relative to younger adults and assess their comfort ith OHI compared to health information (HI) from their physician. ⋯ Although many older patients used OHI, they were less likely than younger adults to use the Internet immediately prior to an ED visit. Despite often using OHI, patients of all age groups found healthcare information from their doctor easier to understand and more trustworthy than information from the Internet. As health systems work to efficiently provide information to patients, addressing these perceived deficiencies may be necessary to build effective OHI programs.
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Comparative Study
Comparing Emergency Department Patients to Inpatients Receiving a Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) Activation.
The development of pulmonary embolism response teams (PERTs) has been widely adopted nationally with the goal of providing multidisciplinary care to patients with high-risk PE. Most PERT activations originate from the emergency department (ED), while others are from the intensive care unit (ICU) or inpatient floors. It is unclear if ED PERT activations differ from non-ED PERT activation in terms of presentation, management, and outcome. ⋯ Pulmonary embolism response team activations from different clinical locations differ in terms of patient presentation, PE confirmation, treatments, and outcomes. PERTs should be customized to support the different needs of each clinical area.
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Multicenter Study
H1-antihistamines reduce progression to anaphylaxis among emergency department patients with allergic reactions.
H1-antihistamines (H1a) can be used to treat emergency department (ED) patients with allergic reactions; however, this is inconsistently done, likely because there is no evidence that this therapy has an impact on serious outcomes. Among ED patients initially presenting with allergic reactions, we investigated whether H1a were associated with lower rates of progression to anaphylaxis. ⋯ Among ED patient with allergic reactions, H1a administration was associated with a lower likelihood of progression to anaphylaxis. These data indicate that early H1a treatment in the ED or prehospital setting may decrease progression to anaphylaxis.