The western journal of emergency medicine
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The utility of troponin as a marker for acute coronary occlusion and patient outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is unclear. We sought to determine whether initial or peak troponin was associated with percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), OHCA survival or neurological outcome. ⋯ In our single-center patient cohort, peak troponin, but not initial troponin, was associated with higher likelihood of PCI, while neither initial nor peak troponin were associated with survival or neurological outcome in OHCA patients.
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Patient satisfaction is a commonly assessed dimension of emergency department (ED) care quality. The ability of ED clinicians to estimate patient satisfaction is unknown. We sought to evaluate the ability of emergency medicine resident physicians and nurses to predict patient-reported satisfaction with physician and nursing care, pain levels, and understanding of discharge instructions. ⋯ ED providers were not able to predict patient satisfaction with nurse or physician care, pain level, or understanding of discharge instructions.
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With the majority of U.S. hospitals not having primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI) capabilities, the time spent at transferring emergency departments (EDs) is predictive of clinical outcomes for patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Compounding the challenges of delivering timely emergency care are the known delays caused by ED crowding. However, the association of ED crowding with timeliness for patients with STEMI is unknown. We sought to examine the relationship between ED crowding and time spent at transferring EDs for patients with STEMI. ⋯ Among patients with STEMI presenting to U.S. EDs, we found that ED crowding has a small but operationally insignificant effect on time spent at the transferring ED.
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We conducted an epidemiologic evaluation of advance directives and do-not-resuscitate (DNR) prevalence among residents of extended care facilities (ECF) presenting to the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Age, gender, POA, and LW use are predictors of ECF patient DNR use. Further, DNR presence is not a predictor of death in the hospital.
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Assessment of medical students' knowledge in clinical settings is complex yet essential to the learning process. Clinical clerkships use various types of written examinations to objectively test medical knowledge within a given discipline. Within emergency medicine (EM), a new national standardized exam was developed to test medical knowledge in this specialty. Evaluation of the psychometric properties of a new examination is an important issue to address during test development and use. Studies have shown that student performance on selected standardized exams will reveal students' strengths and/or weaknesses, so that effective remedial efforts can be implemented. Our study sought to address these issues by examining the association of scores on the new EM national exam with other standardized exam scores. ⋯ The moderate correlation of the national EM M4 examination and USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK scores provides support for the utilization of the CDEM National EM M4 examination as an effective means of assessing medical knowledge for fourth-year medical students. Identification of students scoring lower on standardized exams allows for effective remedial efforts to be undertaken throughout the medical education process.