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Lack of hospital beds puts older patients in Australian emergency departments at risk of death

A survey from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine has found that 70% of patients in Australian emergency departments are waiting over eight hours to be moved to a hospital bed after receiving emergency care.

24 Sep 2015

ER visits can reduce underage drinking and associated problems

The results of a five-year trial from faculty at the University of Michigan Injury Center found giving youth in the emergency department a short intervention during their visit decreased their alcohol consumption and problems related to drinking over the following year.

23 Sep 2015

New commercial EHRs increase potential for patient safety hazards

Even after emergency physicians had acclimated to a new commercial electronic health record (EHR), they increased their tasks performed per minute by nearly 12 percent, increasing the potential for patient safety hazards.

23 Sep 2015

Prashant Mahajan awarded $5.76 million grant to study how febrile infants can avoid invasive procedures

Prashant Mahajan, M.D., professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, chief of the Division of Emergency Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at Wayne State University and Children's Hospital of Michigan, has been awarded a five-year, $5.76 million grant (1R01HD085233) by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.

23 Sep 2015

Study: Neighborhood factors do not influence EMS use for acute stroke as strongly as individual factors do

Neighborhood factors do not influence the use of emergency medical services (EMS) for stroke as strongly as individual factors do, despite earlier indications that socio-demographic characteristics of the neighborhood explain low rates of EMS activation for this life-threatening emergency.

21 Sep 2015

Study reports use of new psychoactive drugs in US nationally representative survey

In recent years, there has been an increase in emergence and use of a variety of new drugs, so-called "novel psychoactive substances" (NPS) in the US and worldwide.

16 Sep 2015

Children in northern Israel emergency departments receive equal pain treatment, regardless of ethnicity

Children with broken bones or joint dislocations in northern Israel emergency departments received equal pain treatment, regardless of their ethnicity or the ethnicity of the nurses who treated them, even during a period of armed conflict between the two ethnic groups.

3 Sep 2015

Boca Raton Regional Hospital introduces ultra-minimally invasive procedure for patients with atrial fibrillation

Boca Raton Regional Hospital's Richard G. Cartledge, MD, FACS, has begun performing ultra-minimally invasive left atrial appendage ligation for atrial fibrillation patients who are on anticoagulants such as Coumadin, Xarelto or Effient. Dr. Cartledge, who is Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Hospital, is one of a select group of surgeons nationally using this method, which involves making two microscopic incisions in order to seal off the left atrial appendage (LAA) in patients where anticoagulants are contraindicated or who refuse to be on such medications.

3 Sep 2015

University of Maryland Medicine offers MRI-guided focused ultrasound treatment to Parkinson's patients

University of Maryland Medicine (the University of Maryland Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine) and its Center for Metabolic Imaging and Image-Guided Therapeutics (CMIT) has begun to use MRI-guided focused ultrasound on a deep structure within the brain related to Parkinson's disease - the globus pallidus.

2 Sep 2015

Diagnosing traumatic brain injury through a blood test: an interview with Dr Korley

The severity of traumatic brain injury is currently crudely classified as mild, moderate or severe. However, often patients referred to as mild have debilitating symptoms that are not “mild”. Additionally, there are patients currently classified as moderate or severe who regain their pre-injury functional status whereas others don’t.

1 Sep 2015

Janssen, Bayer HealthCare announce results from landmark studies evaluating safety profile of XARELTO in NVAF patients

Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and its development partner, Bayer HealthCare, today announced results from PMSS (Post-Marketing Safety Surveillance) and XANTUS (XARELTO for Prevention of Stroke in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation), their landmark real-world studies evaluating the safety of XARELTO in people with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF).

1 Sep 2015

Two new pilot programs launched to reduce hospital readmissions, ease overcrowding in ERs and lower healthcare costs

The UCLA Center for Prehospital Care and collaborators from the Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) agency and the Glendale and Santa Monica fire departments are launching two pilot programs designed to reduce hospital readmissions, address overcrowding in emergency rooms, lower healthcare costs and boost patient satisfaction and quality of life.

1 Sep 2015

September tip sheet from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

A computer algorithm did a better job than doctors at documenting "red flag" symptoms among patients with gastrointestinal disorders, a Cedars-Sinai study has found, underscoring the potential of the technology to improve patient care.

29 Aug 2015

SLU study finds that length of stay in ED makes no real difference in mortality of trauma patient

The amount of time a trauma patient stays in the emergency department (ED) makes no real difference in the patient's mortality, researchers at Saint Louis University found in a recent study.

28 Aug 2015

Simple modification can increase effectiveness of emergency treatment for patients with supraventricular tachycardia

A simple, safe and cost-free modification to a physical technique used to treat patients in the emergency department with an abnormally fast heart rhythm could improve its effectiveness by more than a quarter, according to a study published in The Lancet today (25 August 2015).

26 Aug 2015

Researchers evaluate use of pharmacy-based naloxone education and distribution to fight opioid overdoses

In response to the growing opioid crisis, several states, including Massachusetts and Rhode Island, have granted pharmacists the authority to provide naloxone rescue kits without a prescription to at-risk patients. This model of pharmacy-based naloxone (PBN) education and distribution is one of the public health strategies currently being evaluated at hundreds of pharmacies in both states to determine the impact on opioid overdose death rates.

25 Aug 2015

Normal coagulation tests used to check for side effect of internal bleeding may not be reliable

A recently-published study found that while internal bleeding may be uncommon as a result of taking blood thinners such as Xarelto (rivaroxaban) and Eliquis (apixaban), the normal coagulation tests physicians use to check for the side effect of bleeding may not be reliable.

24 Aug 2015

Researchers develop two simple tools to assess dehydration severity in children

Dehydration from diarrhea, either from viral infection or cholera, accounts for 10 percent of all child deaths worldwide. Though it's a pervasive problem, there are no clinical guidelines that perform better than chance for assessing dehydration severity. In a new study, a team of researchers report that they statistically derived two simple diagnostic tools with high sensitivity and specificity from the cases of 771 children aged 0 to 5 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

23 Aug 2015

Medicaid could save billions as patents for several blockbuster antipsychotic medications expire

Medicaid is expected to save billions of dollars a year as patents for several blockbuster antipsychotic medications expire and use of generic versions of these drugs increases, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. These savings may provide relief from the high costs of these medications and allow policymakers to lift restrictions on patients' access, the researchers argue.

21 Aug 2015

Contact precaution use needs to be individualized to fit hospital's specific needs and resources

Contact precautions are recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for all patients known to be infected with or carrying multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE). Yet, the use of contact precautions--which require a patient to be isolated in a single hospital room and health care providers to wear a gown and gloves when caring for patients--is widely debated in the medical community.

19 Aug 2015

Emergency Medicine News and Research

Lack of hospital beds puts older patients in Australian emergency departments at risk of death

ER visits can reduce underage drinking and associated problems

New commercial EHRs increase potential for patient safety hazards

Prashant Mahajan awarded $5.76 million grant to study how febrile infants can avoid invasive procedures

Study: Neighborhood factors do not influence EMS use for acute stroke as strongly as individual factors do

Study reports use of new psychoactive drugs in US nationally representative survey

Children in northern Israel emergency departments receive equal pain treatment, regardless of ethnicity

Boca Raton Regional Hospital introduces ultra-minimally invasive procedure for patients with atrial fibrillation

University of Maryland Medicine offers MRI-guided focused ultrasound treatment to Parkinson's patients

Diagnosing traumatic brain injury through a blood test: an interview with Dr Korley

Janssen, Bayer HealthCare announce results from landmark studies evaluating safety profile of XARELTO in NVAF patients

Two new pilot programs launched to reduce hospital readmissions, ease overcrowding in ERs and lower healthcare costs

September tip sheet from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

SLU study finds that length of stay in ED makes no real difference in mortality of trauma patient

Simple modification can increase effectiveness of emergency treatment for patients with supraventricular tachycardia

Researchers evaluate use of pharmacy-based naloxone education and distribution to fight opioid overdoses

Normal coagulation tests used to check for side effect of internal bleeding may not be reliable

Researchers develop two simple tools to assess dehydration severity in children

Medicaid could save billions as patents for several blockbuster antipsychotic medications expire

Contact precaution use needs to be individualized to fit hospital's specific needs and resources

Sensing a Healthier Future

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

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