Articles: emergency-services.
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Formal data are lacking regarding emergency departments in academic medical centers, particularly those without an emergency medicine residency program. The Education Committee of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine conducted a survey to define a national profile of academic emergency medicine. ⋯ This article provides the first comprehensive profile of emergency medicine in the Association of American Medical Colleges academic medical centers. Programs with emergency medicine residency programs provided more 24-hour attending coverage, had more emergency medicine board-certified faculty, and reported less difficulty recruiting additional faculty than institutions with no emergency medicine residency program. Both need to expand their undergraduate educational activities. Many institutions with no emergency medicine residency program are attempting to develop emergency medicine residency programs.
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To evaluate the impact of an emergency medicine residency training program on the cost of care in the emergency department. ⋯ As measured by selected test use for six common discharge diagnoses, the introduction of an emergency medicine residency program did not increase the cost of care in this urban community hospital ED.
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Multicenter Study Clinical Trial
Physician electrocardiogram reading in the emergency department--accuracy and effect on triage decisions: findings from a multicenter study.
To determine how well physicians in emergency departments read electrocardiographic (ECG) ST-segment and T-wave changes and how this affects triage decisions. ⋯ Physicians in emergency departments often misread the ST segments and T waves of patients with possible acute cardiac ischemia. Misreading is related to suboptimal triage and unnecessary CCU admission. Training emergency physicians to make these distinctions more accurately could improve medical care and hospital utilization.