Articles: emergency-department.
-
Primary care use helps reduce utilization of more expensive modes of care, such as the emergency department (ED). Although most studies have investigated this association among patients with insurance, few have done so for patients without insurance. We used data from a free clinic network to assess the association between free clinic use and intent to use the ED. ⋯ In the free clinic space, several patient demographic, social determinants of health and medical conditions were independently associated with greater odds of reporting intent on visiting the ED. Additional interventions that improve access and use of free clinics (e.g., dental) may keep patients without insurance from the ED.
-
Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a frequent diagnostic consideration in emergency department (ED) patients, yet diagnosis is challenging because symptoms of PE are nonspecific. Guidelines recommend the use of clinical decision tools to increase efficiency and avoid harms from overtesting, including D-dimer screening in patients not at high risk for PE. Women undergo testing for PE more often than men yet have a lower yield from testing. Our study objective was to determine whether patient sex influenced the odds of received guideline-consistent care. ⋯ In this cohort, females were more likely than males to receive care consistent with current guidelines and less likely to be diagnosed with PE.
-
Review
Clinical Performance Measures for Emergency Department Care for Adults With Intracranial Hemorrhage.
Though select inpatient-based performance measures exist for the care of patients with nontraumatic intracranial hemorrhage, emergency departments lack measurement instruments designed to support and improve care processes in the hyperacute phase. To address this, we propose a set of measures applying a syndromic (rather than diagnosis-based) approach informed by performance data from a national sample of community EDs participating in the Emergency Quality Network Stroke Initiative. To develop the measure set, we convened a workgroup of experts in acute neurologic emergencies. ⋯ Proposed measures include 2 for quality improvement, benchmarking, and accountability (Last 2 Recorded Systolic Blood Pressure Measurements Under 150 and Platelet Avoidance), 3 for quality improvement and benchmarking (Proportion of Patients on Oral Anticoagulants Receiving Hemostatic Medications, Median ED Length of Stay for admitted patients, and Median Length of Stay for transferred patients), and 2 for quality improvement only (Severity Assessment in the ED and Computed Tomography Angiography Performance). The proposed measure set warrants further development and validation to support broader implementation and advance national health care quality goals. Ultimately, applying these measures may help identify opportunities for improvement and focus quality improvement resources on evidence-based targets.
-
Clinical Trial
NT-proBNP cut-off value for ruling out heart failure in atrial fibrillation patients - A prospective clinical study.
N-terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) measurements can be used to rule out heart failure in patients with sinus rhythm. Atrial fibrillation often coexists with heart failure but affects NT-proBNP levels. This study aims to identify the optimal NT-proBNP cut-off value for ruling out heart failure among atrial fibrillation patients. ⋯ NT-proBNP can be used to rule out heart failure in atrial fibrillation patients with a high negative predictive value, but low specificity.
-
Multicenter Study Observational Study
High-Risk Criteria for the Physiologically Difficult Paediatric Airway: a Multicenter, Observational Study to Generate Validity Evidence.
Single-center studies have identified risk factors for peri-intubation cardiac arrest in the emergency department (ED). The study objective was to generate validity evidence from a more diverse, multicenter cohort of patients. ⋯ In a multicenter study, we confirmed that meeting at least one high-risk criterion was associated with paediatric peri-intubation cardiac arrest and patient mortality.