Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation reduces acute low back pain during emergency transport.
Patients with acute low back pain may require emergency transport because of pain and immobilization. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is a nonpharmaceutical therapy for patients with low back pain. ⋯ TENS was found to be effective and rapid in reducing pain during emergency transport of patients with acute low back pain and should be considered due to its ease of use and lack of side effects in the study population.
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Controlled Clinical Trial
The effect of financial incentives on adherence with outpatient human immunodeficiency virus testing referrals from the emergency department.
Undiagnosed human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is not uncommon among patients who seek care in urban inner-city emergency departments (EDs). The optimal method for providing appropriate HIV counseling, testing, and referral in this setting is unclear. A previous evaluation of an outpatient referral system for HIV testing among patients seen in the ED demonstrated that only 11% returned to be tested; of those tested, 7% were seropositive. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of a financial incentive on the proportion of referred ED patients who completed outpatient HIV counseling and testing. ⋯ The use of a modest financial incentive increased the proportion of patients who completed HIV counseling and testing after being referred from the ED. It is unclear whether the use of a financial incentive increases the identification of HIV-infected patients unaware of their status or if it is cost-effective.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
An evaluation of two screening tools for cognitive impairment in older emergency department patients.
Screening for cognitive impairment in older emergency department (ED) patients is recommended to ensure quality care. The Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) may be too long for routine ED use. Briefer alternatives include the Six-Item Screener (SIS) and the Mini-Cog. The objective of this study was to describe the test characteristics of the SIS and the Mini-Cog compared with the MMSE when administered to older ED patients. ⋯ The SIS, using a cutoff of
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Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study
Intensive intervention improves primary care follow-up for uninsured emergency department patients.
To test an intervention designed to improve primary care use and decrease emergency department (ED) utilization for uninsured patients using the ED. ⋯ This project has demonstrated that it is possible to improve primary care follow-up for uninsured ED patients.