Urine Test Strips to Exclude Cerebral Spinal Fluid Blood

Determining the presence or absence of red blood cells (RBC) or their breakdown products in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) is essential for the evaluation of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in headache patients. Current methodology for finding blood in the CSF is either spectrophotometric detection of pigment, which is time consuming and labor intensive, or visual assesment of samples for color change (xanthochromia), which is inaccurate. Bayer Multistix® urine test strips are designed to test urine for RBC by detecting the presence of hemoglobin. The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the perfomance of urine reagent test strips for ruling out the presence of RBC in CSF.

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Cognitive Impairment among Older Adults in the Emergency Department

Within the next 30 years, the number of visits older adults will make to emergency departments (EDs) is expected to double from 16 million, or 14% of all visits, to 34 million and comprise nearly a quarter of all visits.

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Older Emergency Department Drivers: Patterns, Behaviors, and Willingness to Enroll in a Safe Driver Program

Our objective was to assess the reported driving patterns of older emergency department (ED) drivers and the factors that might lead them to enroll in a safe driving program.

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Analgesia for Older Adults with Abdominal or Back Pain in Emergency Department

To determine the association between age and analgesia for emergency department (ED) patients with abdominal or back pain.

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Characteristics of Patients with an Abnormal Glasgow Coma Scale Score in the Prehospital Setting

This cross-sectional study describes the characteristics of patients with an abnormal Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) in the prehospital setting.

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A Detailed Analysis of Prehospital Interventions in Common Medical Priority Dispatch System Determinants

Medical Priority Dispatch System (MPDS) is a type of Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) system used to prioritize 9-1-1 calls and optimize resource allocation. Dispatchers use a series of scripted questions to assign determinants to calls based on chief complaint and acuity.

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Standardized Patients to Teach Medical Students about Intimate Partner Violence

To use 360-degree evaluations within an Observed Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to assess medical student comfort level and communication skills with intimate partner violence (IPV) patients.

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Adaptation of EPEC-EM™ Curriculum in a Residency with Asynchronous Learning

The Education in Palliative and End-of-life Care for Emergency Medicine Project (EPEC™-EM) is a comprehensive curriculum in palliative and end-of-life care for emergency providers. We assessed the adaptation of this course to an EM residency program using synchronous and asynchronous learning.

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Evaluating Emergency Medicine Faculty at End-of-Shift

Faculty often evaluate learners in the emergency department (ED) at the end of each shift. In contrast, learners usually evaluate faculty only at the end of a rotation. In December 2007 Southern Illinois University School of Medicine changed its evaluation process, requiring ED trainees to complete end-of-shift evaluations of faculty.

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Quality Improvement Practices in Academic Emergency Medicine: Perspectives from the Chairs

To assess academic emergency medicine (EM) chairs’ perceptions of quality improvement (QI) training programs.

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Emergency Medicine Residency Applicants’ Perceptions about Being Contacted after Interview Day

We sought to characterize the experiences and preferences of applicants to emergency medicine (EM) residency programs about being contacted by programs after their interview day but before the rank list submission deadline.

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Critical Care

Leukocytosis as Prognostic Indicator of Major Injury

To test the diagnostic use of the triage white blood cell (WBC) count in differentiating major from minor injuries.

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Critical Care Injury Prevention

Competitive Wrestling-related Injuries in School Aged Athletes in U.S. Emergency Departments

To describe the characteristics of wrestling injuries occurring in male athletes aged 7–17 treated in United States (U.S.) emergency departments (ED) from 2000–2006, and to compare injury patterns between younger & older youth wrestlers.

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Critical Care

Randomized Controlled Trial of Prophylactic Antibiotics for Dog Bites with Refined Cost Model

The aim of this study was to determine the rate of infection at which it is cost-effective to treat dog bite wounds with antibiotics.

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GlideScope Videolaryngoscopy in the Simulated Difficult Airway: Bougie vs Standard Stylet

GlideScope® videolaryngoscopy (GVL) has been shown to improve visualization of the glottis compared to direct laryngoscopy (DL). However, due to the angle of approach to the glottis, intubation can still be challenging. We hypothesized that novice GVL users would be able to intubate faster and easier using an airway introducer (frequently known as a bougie) than with a standard intubating stylet.

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Chronic or Recurrent Pain in the Emergency Department: National Telephone Survey of Patient Experience

Persons with chronic or recurrent pain frequently visit the emergency department (ED), yet little research examines this experience. We conducted this national survey to assess patients’ ED experiences.

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Coronary Disease in Emergency Department Chest Pain Patients with Recent Negative Stress Testing

We examined the frequency of significant CAD in patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with chest pain who have had a recent negative or inconclusive (<85% of predicted maximum heart rate) cardiac stress test.

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Echocardiography to Supplement Stress Electrocardiography in Emergency Department Chest Pain Patients

Chest pain (CP) patients in the Emergency Department (ED) present a diagnostic dilemma, with a low prevalence of coronary disease but grave consequences with misdiagnosis. A common diagnostic strategy involves ED cardiac monitoring while excluding myocardial necrosis, followed by stress testing. We sought to describe the use of stress echocardiography (echo) at our institution, to identify cardiac pathology compared with stress electrocardiography (ECG) alone.

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Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome Predicts Mortality in Acute Coronary Syndrome without Congestive Heart Failure

High levels of inflammatory biochemical markers are associated with an increased risk among patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The objective of the current study was to evaluate the prognostic significance of the systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS) among ACS patients with no clinical or radiological evidence of congestive heart failure (CHF).

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Therapeutic Hypothermia Protocol in a Community Emergency Department

Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has been shown to improve survival and neurological outcome in patients resuscitated after out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) from ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia (VF/VT). We evaluated the effects of using a TH protocol in a large community hospital emergency department (ED) for all patients with neurological impairment after resuscitated OHCA regardless of presenting rhythm. We hypothesized improved mortality and neurological outcomes without increased complication rates.

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Emergency Department Activation of Interventional Cardiology to Reduce Door-to-Balloon Time

To determine if ED activation of interventional cardiology could significantly improve reperfusion times and reach the ACC/AHA target of 90 minutes or less in a safety net hospital, a Level I trauma center and teaching hospital serving primarily uninsured and underinsured patient population with door-to-balloon times ranking in the lowest quartile of United States hospitals.

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Sgarbossa Criteria are Highly Specific for Acute Myocardial Infarction with Pacemakers

In 1996 Sgarbossa reviewed 17 ventricular-paced electrocardiograms (ECGs) in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) for signs of ischemia. Several characteristics of the paced ECG were predictive of AMI. We sought to evaluate the criteria in ventricular-paced ECGs in an emergency department (ED) cohort.

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Ed Administration

Use of Health Information Technology to Manage Frequently Presenting Emergency Department Patients

To determine if the effective use of Health Information Technologies (HIT) and the Electronic Medical Record (EMR) affects emergency department (ED) usage in a complicated frequently presenting patient population.

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Ed Administration

Eliminating Amylase Testing from the Evaluation of Pancreatitis in the Emergency Department

Alterations in serum biomarkers have been used to evaluate for pancreatitis in the emergency department (ED). Studies have shown lipase to be as sensitive and more specific than amylase in diagnosing pancreatitis and that amylase plus lipase does not improve accuracy over lipase alone.

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Ed Administration

Emergency Department Frequent User: Pilot Study of Intensive Case Management to Reduce Visits and Computed Tomography

Emergency department (ED) frequent users account for a large number of annual ED visits and often receive radiological studies as a part of their evaluation. We report a pilot study of a case management program for ED frequent users to reduce ED usage and radiation exposure.

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Ed Administration

Impact of Resident Physicians on Emergency Department Throughput

Evaluate the impact of adding emergency medicine residents to a medium-size urban hospital by comparing emergency department (ED) admission rate, total census, length of stay (LOS), and proportion of patients who left without being seen (LWBS).

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