Emergency medicine journal : EMJ
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Multicenter Study
Frequent attendance at the emergency department shows typical features of complex systems: analysis of multicentre linked data.
Frequent attendance at the ED is a worldwide problem. We hypothesised that frequent attendance could be understood as a feature of a complex system comprising patients, healthcare and society. Complex systems have characteristic statistical properties, with stable patterns at the level of the system emerging from unstable patterns at the level of individuals who make up the system. ⋯ ED attendance patterns are stable at the level of the system, but unstable at the level of individual frequent attenders. Attendances follow a power law distribution typical of complex systems. Interventions to address ED frequent attendance need to consider the whole system and not just the individual frequent attenders.
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Multicenter Study Observational Study
Severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection and albumin levels recorded at the first emergency department evaluation: a multicentre retrospective observational study.
The aim of this study was to investigate the association between serum albumin levels in the ED and the severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection. ⋯ Albumin levels measured on presentation to the ED may identify patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection in whom inflammatory processes are occurring and serve as a potentially useful marker of disease severity and prognosis.