Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Observational Study
Patient-Reported Outcomes from A National, Prospective, Observational Study of Emergency Department Acute Pain Management with an Intranasal NSAID, Opioids or Both.
Patient compliance and satisfaction with analgesics prescribed after emergency department (ED) care for acute pain are poorly understood, largely because of the lack of direct patient follow-up with the ED provider. Our objective was to compare patient satisfaction with three analgesia regimens prescribed for post-ED care-a nasally administered nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), an opioid, or combination therapy-by collecting granular follow-up on analgesic use, pain scores, side effects, work activity levels, and overall satisfaction directly from patients. ⋯ Automated telephonic follow-up of ED patients prescribed short-term analgesia is feasible. Ketorolac-based analgesia after an ED visit for many acute pain syndromes was associated with favorable patient outcomes and higher satisfaction than opioid-based therapy. SPRIX, an NSAID that is not available over the counter and has a novel delivery approach, may be useful for short-term post-ED outpatient analgesia.
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Asthma is the most common chronic illness in children and accounts for > 600,000 emergency department (ED) visits each year. Reducing ED length of stay (LOS) for moderate to severe asthmatics improves ED throughput and patient care for this high-risk population. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of adding standardized, respiratory score-based admission criteria to an asthma pathway on ED LOS for admitted patients, time to bed request, overall percentage of admitted asthmatics, inpatient LOS, and percentage of pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) admissions. ⋯ Standardizing care for asthma patients to include objective admission criteria early in the ED course may optimize patient care and improve ED flow.