Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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Review Meta Analysis
Prognostic Accuracy of the HEART Score for Prediction of Major Adverse Cardiac Events in Patients Presenting with Chest Pain - A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
The HEART score has been proposed for emergency department (ED) prediction of major adverse cardiac events (MACE). We sought to summarize all studies assessing the prognostic accuracy of the HEART score for prediction of MACE in adult ED patients presenting with chest pain. ⋯ The HEART score has excellent performance for prediction of MACE (particularly mortality and MI) in chest pain patients and should be the primary clinical decision instrument used for the risk stratification of this patient population.
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This is a validation of a preplanned secondary analysis of the NEXUS II Head computed tomography (CT) decision instrument, focusing on the pediatric population. A total of 1,018 patients less than 18 years old, who underwent head CT imaging for blunt head trauma, were included. The decision instrument correctly identified all patient (27/27) who required neurosurgical intervention and 48 of 49 patients who had clinically significant head injury on CT imaging.
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Physician-assisted death (PAD) has long been a strongly debated moral and public policy issue in the United States, and an increasing number of jurisdictions have legalized this practice under certain circumstances. In light of changing terminology, laws, public and professional attitudes, and the availability of published data about the practice, we review key concepts and terms in the ongoing PAD debate, moral arguments for and against PAD, the current legal status of PAD in the United States and in other nations, and data on the reported experience with PAD in those U. ⋯ We then identify situations in which emergency physicians (EPs) may encounter patients who request PAD or have attempted to end their lives with physician assistance and consider EP responses in those situations. Based on our analysis, we offer recommendations for emergency medical practice and professional association policy.
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Previous studies examining access to trauma care use patient residence as a proxy for location and need for services, which could result in a flawed understanding of access to trauma centers. The objective of this study was to examine the geographic access of the U.S. population to trauma centers based on trauma incident locations. ⋯ These findings suggest that greater access to trauma care and significant variations can be observed throughout the 32 study states when using trauma incident location rather than patient residence to calculate access to trauma care. The proposed capacity-to-demand ratio and accessibility ratio can be applied to many other needs assessments in health care.
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Many emergency department (ED) transfers of children may be avoidable. Identifying hospital-level variables associated with avoidable transfers may guide system-level interventions to improve pediatric emergency care. We sought to examine hospital characteristics associated with ED transfers deemed "probably avoidable" in a large state Medicaid program. ⋯ Among pediatric emergency transfers in a large state Medicaid program with a nearly 20% probably avoidable transfer rate, there was significant hospital-level variation in the proportion of probably avoidable transfers. Transfers from hospitals in large metropolitan areas and transfers from hospitals without pediatric-specific capabilities had increased odds of being probably avoidable transfers, such that these hospitals may represent targets for interventions to reduce these transfers.