The California journal of emergency medicine / California Chapter of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine
-
Patient satisfaction most be a priority in emergency departments (EDs). The care provided by residents forms much of the patient contact in academic EDs. ⋯ Incentives are a novel idea to improve patient satisfaction, but did not foster overall Press-Ganey score improvement. We did find a trend toward improvement for doctor-patient interaction scores. Confounding variables, such as increasing patient census, could account for inability to demonstrate a positive effect.
-
There is ongoing controversy regarding the appropriate use of narcotic analgesia for patients presenting frequently to the emergency department (ED) with subjective acute exacerbations of pain. "Are we treating pain or enabling addiction?" ⋯ There exists a clinically significant drug addiction problem among ED patients presenting with acute exacerbations of pain and among low-acuity patients who do not present to the ED for pain management.
-
To compare perception of the need for emergency care by emergency department (ED) patients vs. emergency physicians (EPs). ⋯ For serious complaints, ED patients' thresholds for seeking care are higher than judged appropriate by EPs. Stroke is not uniformly recognized as an emergency. Absent consensus for the "correct" threshold, the prudent layperson standard is appropriate.
-
This study was designed to determine the proportion of patients with skatepark-related musculoskeletal injuries who were administered analgesics in the emergency department (ED) or at discharge, and to determine if differences in use of pain medication varied by injury type, anatomic location, or patient age. ⋯ A high proportion of skatepark-related musculoskeletal injuries were treated with pain medications either in the ED or at discharge. In this study analgesic medication use was influenced by injury type and location of the injury, but not age.
-
To determine if emergency physicians' (EP) use of droperidol has changed since the United States Food and Drag Administration (FDA) warning of December 2001 concerning QT interval prolongation, torsade de pointes, and sudden death; and to query EP opinions regarding droperidol before and after the FDA warning and regarding potential alternative drugs. ⋯ Based on this survey, EP use of droperidol has decreased dramatically as a result of the FDA warning. However, EPs believe that there are few or no alternative antiemetic drugs that have an improved adverse effect profile.