The American journal of emergency medicine
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Frequent emergency department (ED) users with mental health issues are particularly vulnerable patients, who often receive insufficient or inadequate outpatient care. This systematic review identified and evaluated studies on ED-based interventions to reduce acute care use by this population, while improving outpatient service use and patient outcomes. Searches were conducted in five databases for studies published between January 1, 2000, and April 30, 2022. ⋯ Ten studies assessed outcomes related to use of other services than ED, mainly hospitalizations, while five assessed patients' clinical conditions and three, social conditions (e.g., housing status). This review revealed that case management and care plan interventions, based in ED, decrease ED use among frequent users, while case management also showed promising results for outpatient service use and clinical and social outcomes. Thus, the results support continued deployment of intensive ED-based interventions for frequent ED users with mental health issues although firm conclusions regarding the effectiveness of these interventions, particularly outcomes related to services other than ED, require further investigation.
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This study's objective was to investigate the association between exposure to different intensities of central venous pressure (CVP) over time in patients with septic shock with 28-day mortality and acute kidney injury (AKI). ⋯ The optimal CVP range for patients with septic shock within 24 h of ICU admission is 6-12 cmH2O. Mortality increased when patients were exposed to high CVP for >5 h.
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Computed tomography (CT) is routinely used in the emergency department (ED) due to its ease of access and its ability to rapidly rule in or out many serious conditions. Freestanding emergency departments (FSEDs) have become increasingly used as an alternative to hospital-based emergency departments (HBEDs). The objective of this study was to investigate if the utilization rate of CT differs between FSEDs and HBEDs for chest pain. ⋯ CT scans of the chest are utilized less frequently at FSEDs compared to HBEDs for patient presenting with chest pain.