Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine
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The objective of this study is to present an algorithm for improving the safety and effectiveness of transitions of care (ToC) in the emergency department (ED). ⋯ The authors present specific guidelines for an algorithm-based approach to transitioning care within the ED. This algorithm is based on surveys of perceived deficiencies and emphasizes informational and logistical parameters within a ToC. Standardizing the process of the ToC may allow for future research on the link between effective ToC and patient outcomes.
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Emergency ultrasound-assisted examination of skin and soft tissue infections in the pediatric emergency department.
The objective was to evaluate the test characteristics of clinical examination (CE) with the addition of bedside emergency ultrasound (CE+EUS) compared to CE alone in determining skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs) that require drainage in pediatric patients. ⋯ For clinically evident lesions, the addition of ultrasound (US) did not significantly improve the already highly accurate CE for diagnosing lesions requiring drainage in this study population. However, there were many lesions that were not clinically evident, and in these cases, US may improve the accuracy of the CE.
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The primary individual research career development awards for emergency medicine (EM) investigators are the K08 and K23 awards. To the best of the authors' knowledge, postaward productivity of EM K08 and K23 awardees has not been previously described. The objectives were to describe EM researchers who have received K08 or K23 awards and to evaluate their postaward federal funding and publications. ⋯ Over 40% of EM K awardees who completed their career development training subsequently obtained federal funding as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI, while approximately one in six obtained R01 equivalent funding. Given the numerous barriers facing emergency care researchers, EM K awardees demonstrate good postaward productivity.
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The objective was to compare readmission rates and hospital bed-days between acute decompensated heart failure (AHF) patients admitted or discharged following accelerated treatment protocol (ATP)-driven care in an emergency department observation unit (OU). ⋯ Selected acute heart failure (HF) patients managed by a rapid treatment protocol in the OU demonstrated favorable hospital use, with discharged patients using fewer bed-days and demonstrating readmission rates that were not higher than admitted patients.