Articles: hospital-emergency-service.
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Workplace violence is a pervasive, perpetual, and underreported problem in the emergency department. Nurses experience devastating physical and psychological consequences owing to workplace violence exposure. Understanding workplace violence is challenging due to nurse underreporting. Improvement in capturing workplace violence cases can help drive data-informed, sustainable solutions to workplace violence prevention. The purpose of this project was to better capture the full extent of workplace violence in the emergency department through enhanced nurse workplace violence reporting. ⋯ A multi-interventional approach, coupled with a feasible, readily available electronic reporting instrument, enhanced ED workplace violence reporting and facilitated a better capture of ED workplace violence. Although nurse underreporting is still likely occurring, an emergence of workplace violence data trends can provide data-driven solutions in workplace violence prevention. Continued efforts to reduce the barriers that inhibit reporting are needed to foster a safe and supportive culture surrounding workplace violence reporting.
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Pediatric emergency care · Sep 2024
Changes in Urine Drug Screen Sensitivity in Adolescent Opioid Presentations to the Emergency Department.
Adolescent overdoses have been rising over the past decade. Emergency department (ED) visits for both acute overdoses and for adolescents in opioid withdrawal have risen post-COVID. Urine drug screens have poor utility in the ED but are routinely obtained for medical clearance and in the management of patients with substance use disorder. Our primary goal was to measure the sensitivity of the opiate urine drug assay over time in opioid-related presentations to the ED. ⋯ Opiate screen positivity decreased the last 9 years and may reflect wider use of fentanyl among this population starting in 2020.
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Comparative Study
Predicting severe outcomes in pediatric trauma patients: Shock index pediatric age-adjusted vs. age-adjusted tachycardia.
When an injured patient arrives in the Emergency Department (ED), timely and appropriate care is crucial. Shock Index Pediatric Age-Adjusted (SIPA) has been shown to accurately identify pediatric patients in need of emergency interventions. However, no study has evaluated SIPA against age-adjusted tachycardia (AT). This study aims to compare SIPA with AT in predicting outcomes such as mortality, severe injury, and the need for emergent intervention in pediatric trauma patients. ⋯ AT outperforms SIPA in sensitivity for mortality, injury severity and emergent interventions in pediatric trauma patients while the specificity of SIPA is high across these outcomes.
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Recognized risk factors for acetaminophen overdose include alcohol, opioids, and mood disorders. The aim of this study is to assess additional risk factors for acetaminophen overdose evaluated in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ In addition to previously recognized risks, our study demonstrated that cannabis use and hematologic/oncologic comorbidities were more common among acetaminophen-overdose ED visits. These new findings are concerning because of rapid legalization of cannabis and the increasing incidence of cancer worldwide. Additional investigation into these risks should be a priority for clinicians, policymakers, and researchers.
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We believe that hospital and emergency department (ED) crowding is exacerbated on Mondays because fewer in-patients are discharged on the weekend. In part 1 of 3 concurrent studies, we documented the number of weekend discharges and the extent of hospital and ED crowding on the days following weekends. ⋯ We have demonstrated that there are much fewer discharges on weekends, and this is associated with significant hospital and ED crowding on Mondays. This blocks safe and timely access to beds for newly arriving patients in the ED. These results should spur Canadian hospitals to evaluate their own data and seek solutions to this important problem.