Current Issue: Volume 20 Issue 6

Time Cost of Standardized Nursing Screens in the Emergency Department

Migdal, MD, et al.

Various policies require that screening questions be asked of all patients who present to the emergency department (ED). No studies have previously examined the potential time costs of standardized screens. Our objective was to analyze the time nursing spent conducting standardized nursing screens and calculate the corresponding time cost.

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Musculoskeletal Injuries and Outcomes Pre- and Post- Emergency Medicine Training Program

Mattson, BA, et al.

Musculoskeletal injuries (MSI) comprise a large portion of the trauma burden in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Rwanda recently launched its first emergency medicine training program (EMTP) at the University Teaching Hospital-Kigali (UTH-K), which may help to treat such injuries; yet no current epidemiological data is available on MSI in Rwanda.

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Emergency Department Operations

Predicting Emergency Department “Bouncebacks”: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis

Montoy, MD, et al.

The ability to accurately identify which patients are more likely to revisit the ED could allow EDs and health systems to develop more focused interventions, but efforts to reduce revisits have not yet found success. Whether patients with a high number of ED visits are at increased risk of a return visit remains underexplored.

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Identifying and Overcoming Barriers to Resident Use of Point-of-Care Ultrasound

Schnittke, MD, et al.

Emergency medicine residency programs have rigorous point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curricula. However, this training does not always readily translate to routine use in clinical decision-making. This study sought to identify and overcome barriers that could prevent resident physicians from performing POCUS during clinical shifts.

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Risk Factors Associated with Emergency Department Recidivism in the Older Adult

Sheikh, MD.

Our objective was to review risk factors predictive of older adult recidivism in the emergency department. Certain risk factors and themes commonly occurred in the literature. These recurring factors included increasing age, male gender, certain diagnoses (abdominal pain, traumatic injuries, and respiratory complaints), psychosocial factors (depression, anxiety, poor social support, and limited health literacy), and poor general health (cognitive health and physical functioning).

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Safety of Tiered-Dispatch for 911 Calls for Abdominal Pain

Abramson, MD, et al.

Under this system, patients reporting a chief complaint of abdominal pain received the closest BLS ambulance dispatched alone emergency if located within three miles of the incident. The objective of this study was to determine the safety of BLS-only dispatch to abdominal pain by determining the frequency of time-sensitive events.

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Impact of an Extraglottic Device on Pediatric Airway Management in an Urban Prehospital System

Ostermayer, MD, et al.

Increasingly, emergency medical services (EMS) systems are deploying prehospital extraglottic airways (EGA) for primary pediatric airway management, yet little is known about their efficacy. We evaluated the impact of a pediatric prehospital airway management protocol change, inclusive of EGAs, on airway management and patient outcomes in children in cardiac arrest or respiratory failure.

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Author Response to: “Randomized Controlled Trial of Simulation vs Standard Training for Teaching Medical Students High-quality Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation: The Methodological Issue”

Eric McCoy, MD.

Thank you for your interest in our study entitled “Randomized Controlled Trial of Simulation vs Standard Training for Teaching Medical Students High-quality Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.” Your comments and questions were insightful and appreciated.

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Contact Information

WestJEM/ Department of Emergency Medicine
UC Irvine Health

3800 W Chapman Ave Ste 3200
Orange, CA 92868, USA
Phone: 1-714-456-6389
Email: editor@westjem.org

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WestJEM
ISSN: 1936-900X
e-ISSN: 1936-9018

CPC-EM
ISSN: 2474-252X

Our Philosophy

Emergency Medicine is a specialty which closely reflects societal challenges and consequences of public policy decisions. The emergency department specifically deals with social injustice, health and economic disparities, violence, substance abuse, and disaster preparedness and response. This journal focuses on how emergency care affects the health of the community and population, and conversely, how these societal challenges affect the composition of the patient population who seek care in the emergency department. The development of better systems to provide emergency care, including technology solutions, is critical to enhancing population health.