Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The objective was to determine if emergency department (ED) patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) who have primary care providers (PCPs) have better control of their DM than patients with no PCPs. ⋯ Diabetes control was significantly better in patients with PCPs, even after adjusting for a number of potentially confounding social and demographic factors.
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Adverse drug events (ADEs) are unintended and harmful consequences of medication use. They are associated with high health resource use and cost. Yet, high levels of inaccuracy exist in their identification in clinical practice, with over one-third remaining unidentified in the emergency department (ED). The study objective was to derive clinical decision rules (CDRs) that are sensitive for the detection of ADEs, allowing their systematic identification early in a patient's hospital course. ⋯ The authors derived CDRs that identified patients with ADEs with high sensitivity. These rules may improve the identification of ADEs early in a patient's hospital course while limiting the number of patients requiring a detailed medication review.
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While personal and organizational challenges occur in every area of health care, practitioners of international medicine face unique problems and dilemmas that are rarely discussed in training programs. Health professions schools, residency and fellowship programs, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), and government programs have a responsibility to make those new to international medicine aware of the special circumstances that they may face and to provide methods for understanding and dealing with these circumstances. ⋯ How should organizations ensure that well-meaning health intervention efforts do not cause adverse unintended sequelae? How should an individual balance respect for cultural uniqueness and local mores that may profoundly differ from his or her own beliefs, with the need to remain a moral agent true to one's self? When is acceptance the appropriate response to situations in which limitations of resources seem to preclude any good solution? Using a case-based approach, the authors discuss issues related to the four major international medicine domains: clinical practice (postdisaster response, resource limitations, standards of care), medical systems and systems development (prehospital care, wartime casualties, sustainable change, cultural awareness), teaching (instruction and local resources, professional preparation), and research (questionable funded studies, clinical trials, observational studies). It is hoped that this overview may help prepare those involved with international medicine for the challenges and dilemmas they may face and help frame their responses to these situations.
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The objective was to determine whether emergency department (ED) case volume of acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (AECOPD) is associated with patient outcomes in AECOPD. ⋯ ED patients who are hospitalized for AECOPD have an approximately 50% reduction in early inpatient mortality if they were admitted from an ED that handles a large volume of AECOPD cases.
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Large-scale epidemiologic studies of meningitis in the emergency department (ED) setting are lacking. Using a nationwide sample, the authors determined the frequency of meningitis visits and characterize management. ⋯ Meningitis is rare, diagnosed at 62 per 100,000 ED visits. Rates have been stable over time. Children are 1.48 times more likely to have a visit for meningitis, although adults make twice as many visits. Absence of consensus guidelines for patients suspected of having viral meningitis but being tested for bacterial meningitis may lead to variability in admission and prescribing decisions.