Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To determine what proportion of eligible patients, when referred to a primary care physician for pneumococcal vaccination with a prescription, actually obtain the vaccination. To ascertain the number of eligible patients who would receive the vaccination in the emergency department (ED), if available. ⋯ The percentage of ED patients who used prescription referral to the primary care network for pneumococcal vaccination was approximately 10%. The use of a referral by prescription method in this setting was not a reliable means of increasing the number of patients receiving the pneumococcal vaccination.
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Comparative Study
Dose-dependent hemodynamic effect of digoxin therapy in severe verapamil toxicity.
Calcium chloride (CaCl(2)) alone is an ineffective antidote in severe calcium channel antagonist overdoses. Digoxin has been evaluated as a therapy to increase the effectiveness of calcium in severe calcium channel antagonist overdoses. ⋯ There is a dose-dependent effect of digoxin on systolic blood pressure and maximal ventricular pressure in the setting of severe verapamil toxicity treated with high-dose CaCl(2).
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Comparative Study
Error identification, disclosure, and reporting: practice patterns of three emergency medicine provider types.
To gather preliminary data on how the three major types of emergency medicine (EM) providers, physicians, nurses (RNs), and out-of-hospital personnel (EMTs), differ in error identification, disclosure, and reporting. ⋯ This study suggests that error identification, disclosure, and reporting challenge all members of the ED care delivery team. Provider-specific education and enhanced teamwork training will be required to further the transformation of the ED into a high-reliability organization.