Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Comparative Study
Are statewide trauma registries comparable? Reaching for a national trauma dataset.
Statewide trauma registries have proliferated in the last decade, suggesting that information could be aggregated to provide an accurate depiction of serious injury in the United States. ⋯ Statewide trauma registries are prevalent but vary significantly in composition and content. Standardizing inclusion criteria, variable definitions, and coding conventions would greatly enhance the usability of an aggregated, national trauma registry.
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Some practitioners and investigators have presumed relationships between pain scores and heart rate, blood pressure, or respiratory rate. Previous literature has not adequately addressed the association of pain and vital signs. ⋯ No clinically significant associations were identified between self-reported triage pain scores and heart rate, blood pressure, or respiratory rate.
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The authors sought to determine the contribution of delays in care on time to antibiotics for patients admitted from the emergency department (ED) with pneumonia and to identify patients at risk for delayed antibiotics. ⋯ Antibiotic delays for patients admitted with pneumonia occur across multiple care processes. Less severely ill patients and patients with nonclassic presentations are at higher risk for delayed antibiotic administration. Hospitals should consider performing a similar analysis to evaluate hospital-specific and patient-specific care delays.
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Comparative Study
Emergency department sexually transmitted disease and human immunodeficiency virus screening: findings from a national survey.
To use a previously conducted national physician survey to determine the extent of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted disease (STD) screening by emergency physicians compared with physicians practicing in other settings (primary care offices, hospital ambulatory care clinics, or other). ⋯ Although prior research has shown that STD and HIV rates are relatively high in emergency department patients compared with the population as a whole, screening rates are lower than in other settings. Addressing barriers may increase screening rates.
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Editorial Comment
Narrowing in on JCAHO recommendations for community-acquired pneumonia.