Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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To determine whether changes in graduate medical education (GME) funding have had an impact on emergency medicine (EM) residency training programs. ⋯ Changes in GME funding have not caused a decrease in the number of existing EM residency and fellowship training positions, but may have had an impact in other areas, including: an increase in the number of EM programs structured in a PGY-I through PGY-III format (with a corresponding decrease in the number of PGY-II through PGY-IV programs); a decrease in the number of non-EM residents rotating through the ED; restriction of resident applicants who are ineligible for full GME funding from consideration by some EM training programs; and an increase in the total number of faculty clinical hours without an increase in faculty size.
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The Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors (CORD) standardized letter of recommendation (SLOR) has become a common, reliable, and useful tool in the evaluation of emergency medicine (EM) applicants. A "guaranteed match" (GM) is the SLOR's bottom-line superlative response. It is also the SLOR's least common superlative response. Because candidates receiving a GM are a select group, the authors thought it would be useful to identify SLOR information that predicts a GM recommendation. ⋯ There were both background and qualification data points predictive of a "guaranteed match." Qualification information had a greater predictive value than background information. Medical student applicants, letter writers, and letter evaluators may find this information useful when dealing with SLORS.
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Patients presenting in cardiac arrest frequently have poor outcomes despite heroic resuscitative measures in the field. Many emergency medical systems have protocols in place to stop resuscitative measures in the field; however, further predictors need to be developed for cardiac arrest patients brought to the emergency department (ED). ⋯ Patients presenting with cardiac standstill on bedside echocardiogram do not survive to leave the ED regardless of their electrical rhythms. This finding was uniform regardless of downtime. Although larger studies are needed, this may be an additional marker for cessation of resuscitative efforts.
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To determine whether there are patterns in the incidence of emergency department (ED) visits for congestive heart failure (CHF) by month of the year, day of the week, or hour of the day. ⋯ These data revealed a higher incidence of ED visits for CHF in the winter months, on Mondays, and during the hours of 8 AM to 3 PM. In comparison with previous studies, these data revealed a similar pattern by month of the year and a different pattern by hour of the day.