Articles: emergency-department.
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Hospital emergency departments (EDs) are as barometers of the health care system. Crowded EDs threaten delivery of timely care. Prolonged ED wait times reduce the quality of care and increase adverse and sometimes irreversible events. ⋯ Waiting time for commencement of clinical action in patients admitted to the EDs was considerably high for patients with higher priorities; so, rapid care of critically ill patients, identified during the triage process, should be emphasized.
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To examine the association between numbers of primary care provider (PCP) visits for asthma monitoring (AM) over time and acute asthma visits in the emergency department (ED) and at the PCP for Medicaid-insured children. ⋯ Asthma monitoring visits and documented controller medication for these urban Medicaid-insured children occurred infrequently over 3 years, and having more asthma monitoring visits was not associated with fewer ED or PCP acute asthma visits.
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Observational Study
Implementation of an Emergency Department Sign-Out Checklist Improves Transfer of Information at Shift Change.
Transitions of care are ubiquitous in the emergency department (ED) and inevitably introduce the opportunity for errors. Few emergency medicine residency programs provide formal training or a standard process for patient handoffs. Checklists have been shown to be effective quality-improvement measures in inpatient settings and may be a feasible method to improve ED handoffs. ⋯ Implementation of a checklist improved the transfer of information without increasing time to sign-out.
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The objectives of this study are to estimate the prevalence of weakness and fatigue visits in older emergency department (ED) patients, to compare demographics and resource use in these patients with those without these complaints, and to determine their ED diagnoses and disposition. ⋯ Weakness and fatigue are common in older ED patients. These patients undergo more tests and procedures, and most are admitted.