June Gordon, MD was nine months pregnant with her second child when she graduated from Stanford’s Emergency Medicine residency program last spring. She was a bit of an anomaly; the hours and obligations of a medical residency program present significant roadblocks to childbearing. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I wouldn’t change it […]
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A new protocol could help emergency room physicians to rule out life-threatening bacterial infections among infants up to 2 months of age who have fevers, potentially eliminating the need for spinal taps, unnecessary antibiotic treatments or expensive hospital stays. Researchers from the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) developed the protocol from a study […]
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An Australian initiative is successfully helping emergency doctors and nurses develop better treatments, diagnostics and services for improving patient care. After seeing first-hand the problems time-poor emergency clinicians had in taking part in research projects the Emergency Medicine Foundation – Australia (EMF) launched a Research Support Network (RSN) in late 2015. EMF piloted the program […]
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There is no association between access to federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and emergency department visits for either uninsured or Medicaid-insured patients. That is the conclusion of a study to be published in the February 2019 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), a journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). The lead author […]
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Suspected opioid overdose patients treated with naloxone are safe for discharge from the emergency department after one hour. That is the conclusion of a study to be published in the January 2019 issue of Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), a journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM). The study is the first to clinically […]
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A recent study out of Oregon suggests emergency medical responders — EMTs and paramedics — may be treating minority patients differently from the way they treat white patients. Specifically, the scientists found that black patients in their study were 40 percent less likely to get pain medication than their white peers. Jamie Kennel, head of […]
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Home News Professional Evidence on ED Diversion Strategies Inconclusive FRIDAY, Dec. 21, 2018 — There is insufficient evidence to recommend the implementation of diversion protocols as effective strategies to address emergency department overcrowding, according to a review published online Nov. 27 in the Emergency Medicine Journal. Scott William Kirkland, from the University of Alberta in […]
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For patients who receive emergency department care for heart failure, early follow-up by a physician within 7 days after emergency department discharge is associated with lower rates of death or admissions to hospital, according to research published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). However, the researchers found that less than half of the 34 519 […]
Continue Reading ...Older adults go to the emergency department more often than other age groups, stay longer, and typically require more resources and medical interventions. The most common conditions among geriatric frequent users include diabetes, heart disease, kidney disease, congestive heart failure and blockage or damage to veins or arteries, according to new research in Annals of […]
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Responding to the release of performance figures for January 2019 which show worst ever four-hour performance and the highest ever number of emergency admissions, President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, Dr Taj Hassan said: These are the worst figures on record, showing that despite the positivity around the NHS Long Term Plan, the […]
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WEDNESDAY, Jan. 23, 2019 — Rising ozone levels and air pollution may be sending more people to U.S. emergency rooms with breathing problems, a new study finds. In fact, increased ozone levels, a main component of smog, sent people of all ages to emergency rooms, the researchers found. For each increase in ozone of 20 […]
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[protected-iframe id=”70317e80538508fe9b1a074ac8046c98-7618883-121704370″ info=”https://www.npr.org/player/embed/676039371/681851613″ width=”100%” height=”290″ frameborder=”0″ scrolling=”no”] A recent study out of Oregon suggests emergency medical responders — EMTs and paramedics — may be treating minority patients differently from the way they treat white patients. Specifically, the scientists found that black patients in their study were 40 percent less likely to get pain medication than […]
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Naloxone has saved thousands of lives. But can patients be safely discharged from the Emergency Department (ED) just an hour after they receive the medication that curtails drug overdoses? According to the St. Paul’s Early Discharge Rule developed in 2000, that’s how long providers should observe patients after naloxone treatment, so long as their vital […]
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FINDINGS Emergency medical personnel in Alameda County, California, use a screening process for determining whether to “medically clear” patients experiencing psychiatric emergencies before transporting them. They identify patients who are at low risk for medical emergencies and take them directly to a special Psychiatric Emergency Service facility specifically designed for people experiencing psychiatric crises. The […]
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Three papers from research teams led by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) physician examine the current readiness of U.S. emergency departments (EDs) to care for children and describe an initiative that led to the appointment of a Pediatric Emergency Care Coordinator (PECC) – a step considered the single best intervention to improve pediatric emergency care […]
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