Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Coagulopathy is common after severe trauma and occurs very early after the initial insult. Some investigators have suggested early and aggressive treatment of the trauma-induced coagulopathy by transfusion of fresh-frozen plasma (FFP) and packed red blood cells (PRBC) in a 1:1 ratio. This evidence-based emergency medicine (EBM) review evaluates the evidence regarding the impact of 1:1 ratio of FFP:PRBC transfusion on survival of emergency department (ED) patients with severe trauma. ⋯ Three retrospective registry reviews with suboptimal methodologies and one prospective cohort study provide inadequate evidence to support or refute the use of a high FFP:PRBC ratio in patients with severe trauma.
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Patients of all ages use emergency departments (EDs) for primary care. Several studies have evaluated patient and system characteristics that influence pediatric ED use. However, the issue of proximity as a predictor of ED use has not been well studied. The authors sought to determine whether ED use by pediatric Medicaid enrollees was associated with the distance to their primary care providers (PCPs), distance to the nearest ED, and distance to the nearest children's hospital. ⋯ Geographical variables play a significant role in ED utilization in children, confirming the importance of system-level determinants of ED use and creating the opportunity for interventions to reduce geographical barriers to primary care.
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Recent studies have demonstrated the adverse effects of prolonged emergency department (ED) boarding times on outcomes. The authors sought to examine racial disparities across U.S. hospitals in ED length of stay (LOS) for admitted patients, which may serve as a proxy for boarding time in data sets where the actual time of admission is unavailable. Specifically, the study estimated both the within- and among-hospital effects of black versus non-black race on LOS for admitted patients. ⋯ Black patients who are admitted to the hospital through the ED have longer ED LOS compared to non-blacks, indicating that racial disparities may exist across U.S. hospitals. The disparity for non-ICU patients might be accounted for by among-hospital differences, where hospitals with a higher proportion of blacks have longer waits. The disparity for ICU patients is better explained by within-hospital differences, where blacks have longer wait times than non-blacks in the same hospital. However, there may be additional unmeasured clinical or socioeconomic factors that explain these results.
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Although the U. S. population continues to become more diverse, ethnic and racial health care disparities persist. ⋯ The objective of the discussion was to develop strategies to help EM residency programs examine and improve diversity in their respective institutions. Specific recommendations focus on URG applicant selection and recruitment strategies, cultural competence curriculum development, involvement of URG faculty, and the availability of institutional and national resources to improve and maintain diversity in EM training programs.
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Multicenter Study
Potential impact of adjusting the threshold of the quantitative D-dimer based on pretest probability of acute pulmonary embolism.
The utility of D-dimer testing for suspected pulmonary embolism (PE) can be limited by test specificity. The authors tested if the threshold of the quantitative D-dimer can be varied according to pretest probability (PTP) of PE to increase specificity while maintaining a negative predictive value (NPV) of >99%. ⋯ This large multicenter observational sample demonstrates that emergency medicine clinicians currently order a D-dimer in the majority of patients tested for PE, including a large proportion with intermediate PTP and high PTP. Varying the D-dimer's cutoff according to PTP can increase specificity with no measurable decrease in NPV.