Articles: emergency-department.
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Sepsis is a leading cause of pediatric death requiring emergency resuscitation. Most children with sepsis are treated in general emergency departments (EDs); however, research has focused on pediatric EDs. We sought to identify barriers and facilitators to pediatric sepsis care in general EDs, including care processes, the role of guidelines, and incentivized metrics. ⋯ Leaders in general EDs were motivated to provide high-quality pediatric sepsis care but disagreed on whether reportable metrics would drive improvements. They universally sought direct support from their nearest children's hospitals and actionable guidelines. Efforts to address pediatric sepsis quality in general EDs should prioritize guideline design, responsive pediatric transfer and consultation systems, and locally specific process improvement.
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Interpersonal violent injury is a public health crisis, disproportionately affecting young people of color. We aimed to evaluate associations between sociobehavioral predictors and first-time violent injury, and to develop a predictive risk score for violent injury. ⋯ We developed a promising clinical prediction instrument, the IVI-RPT, that categorizes individuals into risk groups with increasing probabilities of violent injury. External validation of this tool is required prior to clinical practice implementation.
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To investigate the relationship of ambient temperature and atmospheric pressure (AP) at patient discharge after an episode of acute heart failure (AHF) with very early post-discharge adverse outcomes. We analyzed 14,656 patients discharged after an AHF episode from 26 hospitals in 16 Spanish cities. The primary outcome was the 7-day post-discharge combined adverse event (emergency department -ED- revisit or hospitalization due to AHF, or all-cause death), and secondary outcomes were these three adverse events considered individually. ⋯ We found no association between the maximal temperature and AP on the day of discharge and the primary or secondary outcomes. Similarly, there were no significant associations when the analyses were restricted to hospitalized patients (median LOS = 7 days, IQR = 4-11) during the index event, or when lag-1, lag-2 or the mean of the 3 post-discharge days (instead of point estimation) of ambient temperature and AP were considered. Temperature and AP on the day of patient discharge are not independently associated with the risk of very early adverse events during the vulnerable post-discharge period in patients discharged after an AHF episode.
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The HEFESTOS scale was developed in 14 Spanish primary care centres and validated in 9 primary care centres of other European countries. It showed good performance to predict death/hospitalisation during the first 30 days after an episode of acute heart failure (AHF), with c-statistics of 0.807/0.730 in the derivation/validation cohorts. We evaluated this scale in the emergency department (ED) setting, comparing it to the EHMRG and MEESSI scales in the ED and the EFFECT and GWTG scales in hospitalised patients, to predict 30-day outcomes, including death and hospitalisation. ⋯ Conversely, prediction of 30-day death was good with the MEESSI=0.787 (0.728-845), EFFECT=0.754 (0.691-0.818) and GWTG=0.749 (0.689-0.809) scales, and modest with EHMRG=0.649 (0.581-0.717) and HEFESTOS=0.610 (0.538-0.683). Although the HEFESTOS scale was numerically better for predicting 30-day hospitalisation/death in ED AHF patients, its modest performance precludes routine use. Only 30-day mortality was adequately predicted by some scales, with the MEESSI achieving the best results.
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Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome (OHSS) is a rare, but serious, risk of assisted reproductive technologies. In severe cases, patients may present to the emergency department (ED) for assessment, treatment of related complications, and even in-patient admission. Significant effort has been made to reduce the incidence and complications of OHSS; however, it is unknown if these strategies have decreased patient presentation for treatment in the ED. ⋯ Despite an increase in total stimulation cycles, there was no significant change in the estimated number of patients presenting to the ED; however, admission rates significantly declined. These observations suggest a possible shift in the severity and/or management of OHSS during the study period.