Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and heart failure (HF) exacerbations can present similarly in the older adult in the Emergency Department (ED), leading to sub-optimal treatment from over- and under-diagnosis. There may be a role for antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in improving the accurate diagnosis of pneumonia in these patients. ⋯ Emergency physicians continue to have poor diagnostic accuracy in dyspneic older adult patients. Serum AMP levels are one potential tool to improve diagnostic accuracy and outcomes for this important population and require further study.
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Firearm injuries are converging with motor vehicle collisions (MVC) as the number one cause of death for children in the United States. Thus we examine differences in hospital cost and hospital resource utilization between motor vehicle and firearm injury. ⋯ Hospital costs and markers of resource utilization were higher for youths with firearm injury compared to MVC. High medical resource utilization is one of several important reasons to advocate for a comparable national focus and funding on firearm-related injury prevention.
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We describe the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)-Clinical Practice Screener's ability to predict suicide and emergency department (ED) visits for self-harm in the year following an ED encounter. ⋯ The C-SSRS screener is insensitive to suicide risk after ED discharge. Most patients who died by suicide screened negative and did not receive psychiatric services in the ED. Moreover, most patients with suicidal ideation died by causes other than suicide. The screener was more sensitive for predicting nonfatal self-harm and may inform a comprehensive risk assessment. These results compel us to reimagine the provision of emergency psychiatric services.
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The validated Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) prediction rules are meant to aid clinicians in safely reducing unwarranted imaging in children with minor head injuries (MHI). Even so, computed tomography (CT) scan utilization remains high, especially in intermediate-risk (per PECARN) MHI patients. The primary objective of this quality improvement initiative was to reduce CT utilization rates in the intermediate-risk MHI patients. ⋯ Our multifaceted quality improvement initiative was both safe and effective in reducing our CT utilization rates in children with intermediate-risk MHI.