Articles: hospital-emergency-service.
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Potentially avoidable emergency department use by patients discharged to skilled nursing facilities.
One-third of patients discharged from hospitals to skilled nursing facilities (SNF) are sent back to the Emergency Department (ED) within 30 days. Little is known about those patients who are discharged from the ED directly back to SNF. ⋯ The most common reasons for these ED visits were mechanical falls (17.3%), postoperative problems (16.8%), and cardiac or pulmonary complaints (11.4%). Future interventions to decrease avoidable ED visits from SNFs should aim to provide access for SNF patients to receive timely outpatient lab and imaging services and postoperative follow-ups.
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To describe the demographic, clinical, and emergency medical service (EMS) response characteristics associated with EMS activations for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) exacerbations in the US. ⋯ In this large nationwide sample of 9-1-1 activations treated and transported by EMS, 5% were for asthma/COPD exacerbation. Future work should focus on evidence-based standardization of EMS protocols and practice for asthma/COPD exacerbations to improve the quality of EMS care.