Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Comparison of laboratory values obtained by phlebotomy versus saline lock devices.
To assess the utility of a peripheral saline lock device (SLD) as an alternative to a second venipuncture for obtaining selected blood samples. ⋯ Aspirating blood via an SLD is an acceptable method of obtaining serial laboratory values in a group of stable, consenting adult ED patients.
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Admission process delays and other throughput inefficiencies are a leading cause of emergency department (ED) overcrowding, ambulance diversion, and patient elopements. Hospital capacity constraints reduce the number of treatment beds available to provide revenue-generating patient services. The objective of this study was to develop a practical method for quantifying the revenues that are potentially lost as a result of patient elopements and ambulance diversion. ⋯ Significant revenue may be foregone as a result of throughput delays that prevent the ED from utilizing its existing bed capacity for additional patient visits.
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The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education mandated the integration of the core competencies into residency training in 2001. To this end, educators in emergency medicine (EM) have been proactive in their approach, using collaborative efforts to develop methods that teach and assess the competencies. ⋯ Three years later, the competencies were revisited by working groups of EM program directors and educators at the 2005 Academic Assembly. This report provides a summary discussion of the status of integration of the competencies into EM training programs in 2005.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
A prospective comparison of ultrasound-guided and blindly placed radial arterial catheters.
Arterial cannulation for continuous blood-pressure measurement and frequent arterial-blood sampling commonly are required in critically ill patients. ⋯ In this study, US guidance for arterial cannulation was successful more frequently and it took less time to establish the arterial line as compared with the palpation method.