Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
-
Life sometimes creates interesting confluences, and these should not be ignored. I was the Chair who sat on the other side of the desk during the job interview of the author of this remarkable essay. ⋯ This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
-
Diagnostic testing is common during emergency department (ED) visits. Little is understood about patient preferences for such testing. We hypothesized that a patient's willingness to undergo diagnostic testing is influenced by the potential benefit, risk, and personal cost. ⋯ In this ED-based study, patient preferences for diagnostic testing differed significantly across levels of risk, benefit, and cost of diagnostic testing. Cost was the strongest and most consistent factor associated with decreased desire for testing.
-
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is the most common dysrhythmia in the United States. Patients seen in the emergency department (ED) in rapid AFib are often started on intravenous rate-controlling agents and admitted for several days. Although underlying and triggering illnesses must be addressed, AFib, intrinsically, is rarely life-threatening and can often be safely managed in an outpatient setting. At our academic community hospital, we implemented an algorithm to decrease hospital admissions for individuals presenting with a primary diagnosis of AFib. We focused on lenient oral rate control and discharge home. Our study evaluates outcomes after implementation of this algorithm. ⋯ Implementation of a novel algorithm to identify and treat low-risk patients with AFib can significantly decrease the rate of hospital admissions without increased ED returns. This simple algorithm could be adopted by other community hospitals and help lower costs.