Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Prognostic value and agreement of achieving lactate clearance or central venous oxygen saturation goals during early sepsis resuscitation.
Lactate clearance (LC) and central venous oxygen saturation (ScvO(2)) have been proposed as goals of early sepsis resuscitation. The authors sought to determine the agreement and prognostic value of achieving ScvO(2) or LC goals in septic shock patients undergoing emergency department (ED)-based early resuscitation. ⋯ No agreement was found between LC and ScvO(2) goal achievement in early sepsis resuscitation. Achievement of a ScvO(2) ≥ 70% without LC ≥ 10% was more strongly associated with mortality than achievement of LC ≥ 10% with failure to achieve ScvO(2) ≥ 70%.
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Review
A systematic review of emergency department technology-based behavioral health interventions.
This systematic review evaluated the evidence for use of computer technologies to assess and reduce high-risk health behaviors in emergency department (ED) patients. ⋯ The number of studies identified in this review reflects recent enthusiasm about the potential of computers to overcome barriers to behavioral health screening, interventions, and referrals to treatment in the ED. The available literature suggests that these types of tools will be feasible and acceptable to patients and staff.
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Comparative Study
Effect of a mass casualty incident: clinical outcomes and hospital charges for casualty patients versus concurrent inpatients.
A mass casualty incident (MCI) may strain a health care system beyond surge capacity, affecting patterns of care for casualties and other patients. Prior studies of MCIs have assessed clinical care for casualty patients, but have not examined outcomes or expenditures for noncasualty inpatients in the same time period. ⋯ When adjusted for severity of illness, casualty patients and noncasualty patients receiving concurrent hospital care have significantly longer LOS and higher charges than typical hospital patients at times unaffected by MCIs. Spillover effects from MCIs for noncasualty patients have not been previously described and have implications for clinical and hospital management in MCI and other high-surge circumstances.
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Sepsis is characterized by an initial systemic proinflammatory response leading to endothelial damage and increased capillary permeability. The authors conducted a pilot study to determine if microalbuminuria, measured by the urine albumin:creatinine ratio (ACR), was associated with outcome in emergency department (ED) sepsis patients. ⋯ In this pilot study, microalbuminuria measured by POC ACR was associated with disposition in ED patients with sepsis or severe sepsis. Larger studies using more robust outcomes comparing ACR with validated sepsis biomarkers are needed to elaborate on these results.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
The delivery of a health promotion intervention by a public health promotion specialist improves patient satisfaction in the emergency department.
The objective was to introduce a public health promotion specialist (PHPS) into the hospital emergency department (ED) to provide a brief health promotion intervention to patients and to determine the effect of the initiative on patient satisfaction. ⋯ Health promotion and disease prevention interventions carried out by PHPS in the ED can improve patient satisfaction.