Emergency physicians (EP) provide ongoing care to psychiatric patients beyond the confines of a standard emergency department (ED) visit. Often, when we identify patients who need specialty psychiatric care, patients board in the ED awaiting acceptance and transfer to an outside facility. Even when it has taken multiple days to complete the transfer, it has been unclear how to properly obtain reimbursement for this care.
Background
The hierarchical nature of medical education has been thought necessary for the safe care of patients. In this setting, medical students in particular have limited opportunities for experiential learning. We report on a student-faculty collaboration that has successfully operated an annual, short-term surgical intervention in Haiti for the last three years. Medical students were responsible for logistics and were overseen by faculty members for patient care. Substantial planning with local partners ensured that trip activities supplemented existing surgical services. A case review was performed hypothesizing that such trips could provide effective surgical care while also providing a suitable educational experience.
Findings
Over three week-long trips, 64 cases were performed without any reported complications, and no immediate perioperative morbidity or mortality. A plurality of cases were complex urological procedures that required surgical skills that were locally unavailable (43%). Surgical productivity was twice that of comparable peer institutions in the region. Student roles in patient care were greatly expanded in comparison to those at U.S. academic medical centers and appropriate supervision was maintained.
Discussion
This demonstration project suggests that a properly designed surgical trip model can effectively balance the surgical needs of the community with an opportunity to expose young trainees to a clinical and cross-cultural experience rarely provided at this early stage of medical education. Few formalized programs currently exist although the experience above suggests the rewarding potential for broad-based adoption.
Introduction: For survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) seeking care in hospital emergency departments (ED) the need for medical care and safe discharge is acute. Methods: In this study we evaluated safe discharge needs of GBV survivors following hospital-based care at a public hospital in Atlanta, GA, in 2019 and between April 1, 2020–September 30, 2021, using both retrospective chart review and evaluation of a novel clinical observation protocol for safe discharge planning. Results: Of 245 unique encounters, only 60% of patients experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) were discharged with a safe plan and only 6% were discharged to shelters. This hospital instituted an ED observation unit (EDOU) to support GBV survivors with safe disposition. Then, through the EDOU protocol, 70.7% were able to achieve safe disposition, with 33% discharged to a family/friend and 31% discharged to a shelter. Conclusion: Safe disposition following experience or disclosure of IPV and GBV in the ED is difficult, and social work staff have limited bandwidth to assist with navigation of accessing community-based resources. Through an average 24.3 hours of an extended ED observation protocol, 70% of patients were able to achieve a safe disposition. The EDOU supportive protocol substantially increased the proportion of the GBV survivors who experienced a safe discharge.
INTRODUCTION: Undocumented immigrants are excluded from benefits that help compensate for scheduled outpatient hemodialysis (HD), compelling them to use emergency departments (ED) for HD. Consequently, these patients can receive "emergency-only" HD after presenting to the ED with critical illness due to untimely dialysis. Our objective was to describe the impact of emergency-only HD on hospital cost and resource utilization in a large academic health system that includes public and private hospitals. METHODS: This retrospective observational study of health and accounting records took place at five teaching hospitals (one public, four private) over 24 consecutive months from January 2019 to December 2020. All patients had emergency and/or observation visits, renal failure codes (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Rev, Clinical Modification), emergency HD procedure codes, and an insurance status of "self-pay." Primary outcomes included frequency of visits, total cost, and length of stay (LOS) in the observation unit. Secondary objectives included evaluating the variation in resource use between persons and comparing these metrics between the private and public hospitals. RESULTS: A total of 15,682 emergency-only HD visits were made by 214 unique persons, for an average of 36.6 visits per person per year. The average cost per visit was $1,363, for an annual total cost of $10.7 million. The average LOS was 11.4 hours. This resulted in 89,027 observation-hours annually, or 3,709 observation-days. The public hospital dialyzed more patients compared to the private hospitals, especially due to repeat visits by the same persons. CONCLUSION: Health policies that limit hemodialysis of uninsured patients to the ED are associated with high healthcare costs and a misuse of limited ED and hospital resources.
Introduction: Traumatic intracranial hemorrhages (TIH) have traditionally been managed in the intensive care unit (ICU) setting with neurosurgery consultation and repeat head CT (HCT) for each patient. Recent publications indicate patients with small TIH and normal neurological examinations who are not on anticoagulation do not require ICU-level care, repeat HCT, or neurosurgical consultation. It has been suggested that these patients can be safely discharged home after a short period of observation in emergency department observation units (EDOU) provided their symptoms do not progress. Methods: This study is a retrospective cross-sectional evaluation of an EDOU protocol for minor traumatic brain injury (mTBI). It was conducted at a Level I trauma center. The protocol was developed by emergency medicine, neurosurgery and trauma surgery and modeled after the Brain Injury Guidelines (BIG). All patients were managed by attendings in the ED with discretionary neurosurgery and trauma surgery consultations. Patients were eligible for the mTBI protocol if they met BIG 1 or BIG 2 criteria (no intoxication, no anticoagulation, normal neurological examination, no or non-displaced skull fracture, subdural or intraparenchymal hematoma up to 7 millimeters, trace to localized subarachnoid hemorrhage), and had no other injuries or medical co-morbidities requiring admission. Protocol in the EDOU included routine neurological checks, symptom management, and repeat HCT for progression of symptoms. The EDOU group was compared with historical controls admitted with primary diagnosis of TIH over the 12 months prior to the initiation of the mTBI protocols. Primary outcome was reduction in EDOU length of stay (LOS) as compared to inpatient LOS. Secondary outcomes included rates of neurosurgical consultation, repeat HCT, conversion to inpatient admission, and need for emergent neurosurgical intervention. Results: There were 169 patients placed on the mTBI protocol between September 1, 2016 and August 31, 2019. The control group consisted of 53 inpatients. Median LOS (interquartile range [IQR]) for EDOU patients was 24.8 (IQR: 18.8-29.9) hours compared with a median LOS for the comparison group of 60.2 (IQR: 45.1-85.0) hours (P .001). In the EDOU group 47 (27.8%) patients got a repeat HCT compared with 40 (75.5%) inpatients, and 106 (62.7%) had a neurosurgical consultation compared with 53 (100%) inpatients. Subdural hematoma was the most common type of hemorrhage. It was found in 60 (35.5%) patients, and subarachnoid hemorrhage was found in 56 cases (33.1%). Eleven patients had multicompartment hemorrhage of various classifications. Twelve (7.1%) patients required hospital admission from the EDOU. None of the EDOU patients required emergent neurosurgical intervention. Conclusion: Patients with minor TIH can be managed in an EDOU using an mTBI protocol and discretionary neurosurgical consults and repeat HCT. This is associated with a significant reduction in length of stay. [West J Emerg Med. 2021;22(4)943-950.].
Introduction: Poisoning is an increasingly important cause of injury in the United States. In 2009 poison centers received 2,479,355 exposure reports, underscoring the role of poison centers in intentional and unintentional injury prevention. Antiretroviral (ARV) agents are commonly prescribed drugs known to cause toxicity, yet the frequency of these incidents is unknown. The objectives of this study were to quantify the number of reported cases of toxicity secondary to ARV agents at a regional poison center, and to describe the circumstances and clinical manifestations of these poisonings. Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of poison center records between December 1, 2001, and January 7, 2010. Results: One hundred sixty-two exposures to ARV agents were reported to the poison center, of which 30% were intentional and 70% were unintentional. Three patients developed major toxicity and no deaths occurred. The remaining patients developed moderate and minor effects as defined by poison center guidelines. Conclusion: ARV drug toxicity appears to be infrequently reported to the poison center. Fatal and major toxicities are uncommon, and intentional overdoses are associated with a more serious toxicity. Educational efforts should encourage clinicians to report toxicities related to the use of ARV agents to poison centers in order to better study this problem.
Abstract
In the United States, men who have sex with men (MSM) constitute the risk group in which the prevalence of new HIV infection is increasing. The percentage of undiagnosed HIV infection and HIV risk behaviors in MSM and non-MSM participating in an emergency department-based rapid HIV screening program were compared. Medical records of all male patients participating in the program from May 2008 to October 2010 were reviewed. MSM were identified as male or male-to-female patients reporting oral and/or anal sex with a male. Males eligible for testing were aged 18 or older, English-speaking, not known to be HIV infected, and able to decline testing. A total of 6672 males were approached for testing; 5610 (84.1%) accepted, 366 (6.5%) were MSM, and 5244 (93.5%) were non-MSM. A total of 90.7% were black. Median age was 41. Fifty-nine MSM (16.1%) were diagnosed with HIV compared to 81 (1.5%) non-MSM. MSM were 10 times more likely than non-MSM to have undiagnosed HIV infection (odds ratio [OR] 10.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 7.3, 14.0). HIV-infected MSM (median age, 26) were younger than non-MSM (median age, 41). HIV-infected non-MSM were 2 times more likely than MSM to have CD4 counts less than 200 cells per microliter. MSM were more likely to report previous HIV testing (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.4, 2.5) and risk behaviors, including sex without a condom (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.5, 2.6), sex with an HIV-infected partner (OR 14.6, 95% CI 8.3, 25.6) and sex with a known injection drug user (OR 4.1, 95% CI 2.0, 8.4). Further investigation of emergency department-based HIV testing and risk reduction programs targeting MSM is warranted.