Articles

Outcomes associated with observation versus short-stay admission among chest pain patients in the Veterans Health Administration

To determine the extent to which 30- and 90-day hospital readmission and mortality rates differ as a function of whether a chest pain patient is placed in observation status or admitted to the hospital for a s...

Authors: Brad Wright, Amy M. J. O’Shea, Justin M. Glasgow, Padmaja Ayyagari and Mary Vaughan-Sarrazin

Keep it simple: vascular risk factors and focal exam findings correctly identify posterior circulation ischemia in “dizzy” patients

Dizziness is a common chief complaint of patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED). Physicians must quickly and accurately identify patients whose etiology is most likely ischemia. Additional tools ...

Authors: Karen Chen, Andrea L. C. Schneider, Rafael H. Llinas and Elisabeth B. Marsh

Barriers in detecting elder abuse among emergency medical technicians

Elder abuse and neglect are highly under-reported in the United States. This may be partially attributed to low incidence of reporting among emergency medical technicians’ (EMTs), despite state-mandated report...

Authors: Jennifer M. Reingle Gonzalez, M. Brad Cannell, Katelyn K. Jetelina and Sepeadeh Radpour

Heart Fatty Acid Binding Protein and cardiac troponin: development of an optimal rule-out strategy for acute myocardial infarction

Improved ability to rapidly rule-out Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI) in patients presenting with chest pain will promote decongestion of the Emergency Department (ED) and reduce unnecessary hospital admissio...

Authors: Joanna M. Young, John W. Pickering, Peter M. George, Sally J. Aldous, John Wallace, Chris M. Frampton, Richard W. Troughton, Mark A. Richards, Jaimi H. Greenslade, Louise Cullen and Martin P. Than

The incorporation of focused history in checklist for early recognition and treatment of acute illness and injury

Diagnostic error and delay are critical impediments to the safety of critically ill patients. Checklist for early recognition and treatment of acute illness and injury (CERTAIN) has been developed as a tool th...

Authors: Namita Jayaprakash, Rashid Ali, Rahul Kashyap, Courtney Bennett, Alexander Kogan and Ognjen Gajic

Early prediction of outcome after severe traumatic brain injury: a simple and practical model

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a heterogeneous syndrome with a broad range of outcome. We developed a simple model for long-term outcome prognostication after severe TBI.

Authors: Sandro Rizoli, Ashley Petersen, Eileen Bulger, Raul Coimbra, Jeffrey D. Kerby, Joseph Minei, Laurie Morrison, Avery Nathens, Martin Schreiber and Airton Leonardo de Oliveira Manoel

Psychological distress in medical patients 30 days following an emergency department admission: results from a prospective, observational study

Psychological distress in medical patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) is not well studied. Our aim was to investigate the extent of psychological distress in a broad and unselected medical patie...

Authors: Lukas Faessler, Alexander Kutz, Sebastian Haubitz, Beat Mueller, Pasqualina Perrig-Chiello and Philipp Schuetz

Prospective evaluation of an automated method to identify patients with severe sepsis or septic shock in the emergency department

Sepsis is an often-fatal syndrome resulting from severe infection. Rapid identification and treatment are critical for septic patients. We therefore developed a probabilistic model to identify septic patients ...

Authors: Samuel M. Brown, Jason Jones, Kathryn Gibb Kuttler, Roger K. Keddington, Todd L. Allen and Peter Haug

Saudi SCD patients’ symptoms and quality of life relative to the number of ED visits

Individuals living with sickle cell disease (SCD) have significantly increased emergency department (ED) use compared to the general population. In Saudi Arabia, health care is free for all individuals and the...

Authors: Anwar E. Ahmed, Ahmed S. Alaskar, Donna K. McClish, Yosra Z. Ali, Mohammed H. Aldughither, Ahmad M. Al-Suliman and Hafiz M. Malhan

Mortality among head trauma patients taking preinjury antithrombotic agents: a retrospective cohort analysis from a Level 1 trauma centre

Bleeding represents the most well-known and the most feared complications caused by the use of antithrombotic agents. There is, however, limited documentation whether pre-injury use of antithrombotic agents af...

Authors: Sigrid Narum, Odd Brørs, Olav Stokland and Marianne K. Kringen

Epidemiology and outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in a developing country-a multicenter cohort study

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is one of the leading causes of death and disability worldwide. Overall survival after an OHCA has been reported to be poor and limited studies have been conducted in deve...

Authors: Minaz Mawani, Muhammad Masood Kadir, Iqbal Azam, Amber Mehmood, Bryan McNally, Kent Stevens, Rozina Nuruddin, Mohammad Ishaq and Junaid Abdul Razzak

Screening for frailty among older emergency department visitors: Validation of the new FRESH-screening instrument

The identification of frail older persons in different health care settings is widely seen as an important step in improving the healthcare system. Screening at an emergency department (ED) should be handled i...

Authors: Eklund Kajsa, Wilhelmson Katarina, Landahl Sten and Ivanoff-Dahlin Synneve

Prediction of 90-day mortality in older patients after discharge from an emergency department: a retrospective follow-up study

Older people frequently attend the emergency department (ED) and have a high risk of poor outcome as compared to their younger counterparts. Our aim was to study routinely collected clinical parameters as pred...

Authors: Susanna E. Hofman, Jacinta A. Lucke, Noor Heim, Jelle de Gelder, Anne J. Fogteloo, Christian Heringhaus, Bas de Groot, Anton J. M. de Craen, Gerard Jan Blauw and Simon P. Mooijaart

Assessing the completeness of coded and narrative data from the Victorian Emergency Minimum Dataset using injuries sustained during fitness activities as a case study

Injury surveillance systems support the ongoing systematic collection, analysis and interpretation of health information vital to the prevention, planning and evaluation of injury prevention strategies. One ke...

Authors: Shannon E. Gray and Caroline F. Finch

The CPR outcomes of online medical video instruction versus on-scene medical instruction using simulated cardiac arrest stations

Non-traumatic cardiac arrest is a fatal emergency condition. Its survival rate and outcomes may be better with quick and effective cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Telemedicine such as telephone or real ti...

Authors: Chaiyaporn Yuksen, Sorravit Sawatmongkornkul, Jarupol Tuangsirisup, Kittisak Sawanyawisuth and Yuwares Sittichanbuncha

Carotid artery dissection and motor vehicle trauma: patient demographics, associated injuries and impact of treatment on cost and length of stay

Blunt carotid arterial injury (BCI) is a rare injury associated with motor vehicle collision (MVC). There are few population based analyses evaluating carotid injury associated with blunt trauma and their asso...

Authors: Jared E. Kray, Viktor Y. Dombrovskiy and Todd R. Vogel

Is it a matter of urgency? A survey of assessments by walk-in patients and doctors of the urgency level of their encounters at a general emergency outpatient clinic in Oslo, Norway

Emergency room (ER) use is increasing in several countries. Variability in the proportion of non-urgent ER visits was found to range from 5 to 90 % (median 32 %). Non-urgent emergency visits are considered an ...

Authors: Sven Eirik Ruud, Per Hjortdahl and Bård Natvig

A generic method for evaluating crowding in the emergency department

Crowding in the emergency department (ED) has been studied intensively using complicated non-generic methods that may prove difficult to implement in a clinical setting. This study sought to develop a generic ...

Authors: Andreas Halgreen Eiset, Mogens Erlandsen, Anders Brøns Møllekær, Julie Mackenhauer and Hans Kirkegaard

Influence of alcohol and other substances of abuse at the time of injury among patients in a Norwegian emergency department

The presence of alcohol or other substances of abuse in blood or urine from injured patients is often used as a proxy for substance influence at the time of injury. The aim of this study was to obtain an estim...

Authors: Eirin Bakke, Stig Tore Bogstrand, Per Trygve Normann, Øivind Ekeberg and Liliana Bachs

Towards the development of a screening tool to enhance the detection of elder abuse and neglect by emergency medical technicians (EMTs): a qualitative study

To develop a screening tool to enhance elder abuse and neglect detection and reporting rates among emergency medical technicians (EMTs). Our primary aim was to identify the most salient indicators of elder abu...

Authors: M. Brad Cannell, Katelyn K. Jetelina, Matt Zavadsky and Jennifer M. Reingle Gonzalez

Personal and professional challenges confronted by hospital staff following hurricane sandy: a qualitative assessment of management perspectives

Adequate hospital staffing during and after a disaster is critical to meet increased health care demands and to ensure continuity of care and patient safety. However, when a disaster occurs, staff may become b...

Authors: Andrea M. Morris, Karen A. Ricci, Anne R. Griffin, Kevin C. Heslin and Aram Dobalian

Higher diagnostic accuracy and cost-effectiveness using procalcitonin in the treatment of emergency medicine patients with fever (The HiTEMP study): a multicenter randomized study

Fever is a common symptom in the emergency department(ED). Fever can be caused by bacterial infections, which are treated with antibiotics. Often, bacterial infections cannot be ruled out in the ED using stand...

Authors: Yuri van der Does, Maarten Limper, Stephanie C. E. Schuit, Marten J. Poley, Joost van Rosmalen, Christian Ramakers, Peter Patka, Eric C. M. van Gorp and Pleunie P. M. Rood

Human temperatures for syndromic surveillance in the emergency department: data from the autumn wave of the 2009 swine flu (H1N1) pandemic and a seasonal influenza outbreak

The emergency department (ED) increasingly acts as a gateway to the evaluation and treatment of acute illnesses. Consequently, it has also become a key testing ground for systems that monitor and identify outb...

Authors: Samantha F. Bordonaro, Daniel C. McGillicuddy, Francesco Pompei, Dmitriy Burmistrov, Charles Harding and Leon D. Sanchez

Validation of a novel prediction model for early mortality in adult trauma patients in three public university hospitals in urban India

Trauma is one of the top threats to population health globally. Several prediction models have been developed to supplement clinical judgment in trauma care. Whereas most models have been developed in high-inc...

Authors: Martin Gerdin, Nobhojit Roy, Monty Khajanchi, Vineet Kumar, Li Felländer-Tsai, Max Petzold, Göran Tomson and Johan von Schreeb

Improving self-referral for diabetes care following hypoglycaemic emergencies: a feasibility study with linked patient data analysis

Hypoglycaemia is a common and potentially life threatening consequence of insulin and sulphonylurea treated Diabetes. Some severe hypoglycaemic events result in emergency ambulance attendance. Many of these pa...

Authors: Edward A. S. Duncan and David Fitzpatrick

BMC Emergency Medicine reviewer acknowledgement 2015

The editors of BMC Emergency Medicine would like to thank all our reviewers who have contributed to the journal in Volume 15 (2015)

Authors: Giulia Mangiameli

A practical method for predicting frequent use of emergency department care using routinely available electronic registration data

Accurately predicting future frequent emergency department (ED) utilization can support a case management approach and ultimately reduce health care costs. This study assesses the feasibility of using routinel...

Authors: Jianmin Wu, Shaun J. Grannis, Huiping Xu and John T. Finnell

Use of diagnosis codes for detection of clinically significant opioid poisoning in the emergency department: A retrospective analysis of a surveillance case definition

Although fatal opioid poisonings tripled from 1999 to 2008, data describing nonfatal poisonings are rare. Public health authorities are in need of tools to track opioid poisonings in near real time.

Authors: Joseph M. Reardon, Katherine J. Harmon, Genevieve C. Schult, Catherine A. Staton and Anna E. Waller

Prospective stratification of patients at risk for emergency department revisit: resource utilization and population management strategy implications

Estimating patient risk of future emergency department (ED) revisits can guide the allocation of resources, e.g. local primary care and/or specialty, to better manage ED high utilization patient populations an...

Authors: Bo Jin, Yifan Zhao, Shiying Hao, Andrew Young Shin, Yue Wang, Chunqing Zhu, Zhongkai Hu, Changlin Fu, Jun Ji, Yong Wang, Yingzhen Zhao, Yunliang Jiang, Dorothy Dai, Devore S. Culver, Shaun T. Alfreds, Todd Rogow…

Protocol: simulation training to improve 9-1-1 dispatcher identification of cardiac arrest

9-1-1 dispatchers are often the first contact for bystanders witnessing an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. In the time before Emergency Medical Services arrives, dispatcher identification of the need for, and ...

Authors: Hendrika Meischke, Ian Painter, Anne M. Turner, Marcia R. Weaver, Carol E. Fahrenbruch, Brooke R. Ike and Scott Stangenes

Use of the GlideScope®-Ranger for pre-hospital intubations by anaesthesia trained emergency physicians – an observational study

Pre-hospital endotracheal intubation is more difficult than in the operating room (OR). Therefore, enhanced airway management devices such as video laryngoscopes may be helpful to improve the success rate of p...

Authors: Sebastian G. Russo, Eike A. Nickel, Kay B. Leissner, Katrin Schwerdtfeger, Martin Bauer and Markus S. Roessler

Diagnostic value of end tidal capnography in patients with hyperglycemia in the emergency department

Diabetic Ketoacidosis (DKA) is a potentially life-threatening emergency that requires prompt diagnosis and treatment. In paediatric populations an end tidal capnography value greater than 36 mmHg was found to ...

Authors: Ralphe Bou Chebl, Bryan Madden, Justin Belsky, Elie Harmouche and Lenar Yessayan

Emergency department visits for head trauma in the United States

Head trauma affects millions of Americans each year and has significant morbidity and economic costs to society. The objective of this study is to describe the epidemiology of head traumas presenting to emerge...

Authors: Christopher E. Gaw and Mark R. Zonfrillo

Do male and female trauma patients receive the same prehospital care?: an observational follow-up study

Trauma-related mortality can be lowered by efficient prehospital care. Less is known about whether gender influences the prehospital trauma care provided. The aim of this study was to explore gender-related di...

Authors: Rebecka Rubenson Wahlin, Sari Ponzer, Hanna Lövbrand, Markus Skrivfars, Hans Morten Lossius and Maaret Castrén

Development and validation of clinical performance assessment in simulated medical emergencies: an observational study

Critical illness is a time-sensitive process which requires practitioners to process vast quantities of data and make decisions rapidly. We have developed a tool, the Checklist for Early Recognition and Treatm...

Authors: Aysen Erdogan, Yue Dong, Xiaomei Chen, Christopher Schmickl, Ronaldo A. Sevilla Berrios, Lisbeth Y. Garcia Arguello, Rahul Kashyap, Oguz Kilickaya, Brian Pickering, Ognjen Gajic and John C. O’Horo

Prehospital paths and hospital arrival time of patients with acute coronary syndrome or stroke, a prospective observational study

Patients with a presumed diagnosis of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or stroke may have had contact with several healthcare providers prior to hospital arrival. The aim of this study was to describe the various...

Authors: Carine J. M. Doggen, Marlies Zwerink, Hanneke M. Droste, Paul J. A. M. Brouwers, Gert K. van Houwelingen, Fred L. van Eenennaam and Rolf E. Egberink

Pattern of acute poisoning at two urban referral hospitals in Lusaka, Zambia

Poisoning remains an important public health problem contributing significantly to the global burden of disease. Evidence on the exact burden and pattern of acute poisoning in Zambia is limited. We aimed to ch...

Authors: Jessy Z’gambo, Yorum Siulapwa and Charles Michelo

Predictive role of high sensitivity troponin T within four hours from presentation of acute coronary syndrome in elderly patients

Previous studies indicate that the introduction of high-sensitivity troponin T (HsTnT) as a diagnostic tool for chest pain patients in the emergency department (ED) creates a high rate of false-positive tests....

Authors: Catharina Borna, Katarina Lockman Frostred and Ulf Ekelund

Patient education and follow-up as an intervention for hypertensive patients discharged from an emergency department: a randomized control trial study protocol

Persistently elevated blood pressure (BP) is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease development, making effective hypertension management an issue of considerable public health importance. Hypertensi...

Authors: Julie Gleason-Comstock, Alicia Streater, Joel Ager, Allen Goodman, Aaron Brody, Laura Kivell, Aniruddha Paranjpe, Jasmine Vickers, LynnMarie Mango, Rachelle Dawood and Phillip Levy

The probability of readmission within 30 days of hospital discharge is positively associated with inpatient bed occupancy at discharge – a retrospective cohort study

Previous work has suggested that given a hospital’s need to admit more patients from the emergency department (ED), high inpatient bed occupancy may encourage premature hospital discharges that favor the hospi...

Authors: Mathias C. Blom, Karin Erwander, Lars Gustafsson, Mona Landin-Olsson, Fredrik Jonsson and Kjell Ivarsson

Intentional and unintentional poisoning in Pakistan: a pilot study using the Emergency Departments surveillance project

Acute poisoning is one of the most common reasons for emergency department visits around the world. In Pakistan, the epidemiological data on poisoning is limited due to an under developed poison information su...

Authors: Nadeem Ullah Khan, Ricardo Pérez-Núñez, Nudrat Shamim, Uzma Rahim Khan, Naureen Naseer, Asher Feroze, Junaid Abdul Razzak and Adnan A Hyder

Emergency care of traumatic brain injuries in Pakistan: a multicenter study

This study assessed factors associated with emergency care outcomes and out-of-pocket treatment costs in traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients in Pakistan.

Authors: Junaid Ahmad Bhatti, Kent Stevens, Muhammad Umer Mir, Adnan A Hyder and Junaid Abdul Razzak

How vital are the vital signs? a multi-center observational study from emergency departments of Pakistan

Vital signs play a critical role in prioritizing patients in emergency departments (EDs), and are the foundation of most triage methods and disposition decisions. This study was conducted to determine the freq...

Authors: Amber Mehmood, Siran He, Waleed Zafar, Noor Baig, Fareed Ahmed Sumalani and Juanid Abdul Razzak

Ambulance use in Pakistan: an analysis of surveillance data from emergency departments in Pakistan

The utilization of ambulances in low- and middle-income countries is limited. The aim of this study was to ascertain frequency of ambulance use and characteristics of patients brought into emergency department...

Authors: Nukhba Zia, Hira Shahzad, Syed Muhammad Baqir, Shahab Shaukat, Haris Ahmad, Courtland Robinson, Adnan A Hyder and Junaid Abdul Razzak

Bomb blast injuries: an exploration of patient characteristics and outcome using Pakistan National Emergency Departments Surveillance (Pak-NEDS) data

Bomb blast injuries result in premature deaths and burdening of healthcare systems. The objective of this study was to explore the characteristics and outcome of patients presenting to the emergency department...

Authors: Irum Qamar Khan, Nadeem Ullah Khan, Rubaba Naeem, Salima Kerai, Kate Allen, Nukhba Zia, Sana Shahbaz, Shiraz Qayoom Afridi, Emaduddin Siddiqui, Uzma Rahim Khan, Adnan A Hyder and Junaid A Razzak

Burn injury characteristics: findings from Pakistan National Emergency Department Surveillance Study

Burn injury is an important yet under-researched area in Pakistan. The objective of this study was to determine the characteristics and associated outcomes of burn injury patients presenting to major emergency...

Authors: Emaduddin Siddiqui, Nukhba Zia, Asher Feroze, Safia Awan, Arifa Liaquat Ali, Junaid Abdul Razzak, Adnan A Hyder and Asad Latif

Pattern of fall injuries in Pakistan: the Pakistan National Emergency Department Surveillance (Pak-NEDS) study

We aimed to analyse the frequency and patterns of fall-related injuries presenting to the emergency departments (EDs) across Pakistan.

Authors: Jabeen Fayyaz, Shirin Wadhwaniya, Hira Shahzad, Asher Feroze, Nukhba Zia, Mohammed Umer Mir, Uzma Rahim Khan, Sumera Iram, Sabir Ali, Junaid Abdul Razzak and Adnan A Hyder

Characteristics of chest pain and its acute management in a low-middle income country: analysis of emergency department surveillance data from Pakistan

Chest pain is one of the most frequent causes of emergency department (ED) visits in high-income countries. Little is known about chest pain patients presenting to EDs of low- and middle-income countries (LMIC...

Authors: Nino Paichadze, Badar Afzal, Nukhba Zia, Rakshinda Mujeeb, Muhammad Mujeeb Khan and Junaid A Razzak

The pediatric disease spectrum in emergency departments across Pakistan: data from a pilot surveillance system

There is an increasing number of urgently ill and injured children being seen in emergency departments (ED) of developing countries. The pediatric disease burden in EDs across Pakistan is generally unknown. Ou...

Authors: Huba Atiq, Emaduddin Siddiqui, Surriya Bano, Asher Feroze, Ghazala Kazi, Jabeen Fayyaz, Shivam Gupta, Juanid A Razzak, Adnan A Hyder and Asad I Mian

Establishing a National Emergency Department Surveillance: an innovative study from Pakistan

Authors: Prasanthi Puvanachandra, Junaid A Razzak and Adnan A Hyder