Noninvasive cardiac testing (NICT) has been associated with decreased long-term risks of major adverse cardiac events (MACEs) among emergency department patients at high coronary risk. It is unclear whether this association extends to patients without evidence of myocardial injury on…
Invasive bacterial infections (IBIs) in febrile infants are rare but potentially devastating. We aimed to derive and validate a predictive model for IBI among febrile infants age 7-60 days. Data were abstracted retrospectively from electronic records of 37 emergency departments…
Introduction There is considerable variation in the approach to infants presenting to the emergency department (ED) with fever. The authors' primary aim was to develop a robust set of algorithms using community ED data to inform modifications of broader clinical…
Efficient and accurate emergency department (ED) triage is critical to prioritize the sickest patients and manage department flow. We explored the use of electronic health record data and advanced predictive analytics to improve triage performance. Using a data set of…
Management of adults with atrial fibrillation (AF) or atrial flutter in the emergency department (ED) includes rate reduction, cardioversion, and stroke prevention. Different approaches to these components of care may lead to variation in frequency of hospitalization and stroke prevention…
Accurate emergency department (ED) triage is essential to prioritize the most critically ill patients and distribute resources appropriately. The most used triage system in the US is the Emergency Severity Index (ESI). To derive and validate an algorithm to assess…
Head injury is a common reason children present to EDs. Guideline development to improve care for paediatric head injuries should target the information needs of ED clinicians and factors influencing its uptake. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews (November 2017-November 2018)…
The absence of consensus for outcomes in pediatric antibiotic trials is a major barrier to research harmonization and clinical translation. We sought to develop expert consensus on study outcomes for clinical trials of children with mild community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). Applying…
In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) published the Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for management of well-appearing, febrile infants 8 to 60 days old. For older infants, the guideline relies on several inflammatory markers, including tests not rapidly available…
Describe emergency department (ED) management and patient outcomes for febrile infants 29-60 days of age who received a lumbar puncture (LP), with focus on timing of antibiotics and type of physician performing LP. Retrospective observational study of 35 California EDs from…
It is unclear whether referral for cardiac noninvasive testing (NIT) following emergency department (ED) chest pain encounters improves short-term outcomes. This was a retrospective cohort study of patients presenting with chest pain, without ST-elevation myocardial infarction or myocardial injury by…
Physicians commonly hospitalize patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with acute pulmonary embolism (PE), despite eligibility for safe outpatient management. Risk stratification using electronic health record-embedded clinical decision support systems can aid physician site-of-care decision-making and increase safe outpatient…
Decreasing unnecessary cranial computed tomography (CT) use in pediatric head trauma patients remains important for emergency departments (EDs) across the US. Our study evaluated CT use in children with minor blunt head trauma in 21 community EDs within an integrated…
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has extracted devastating tolls. Despite its pervasiveness, robust information on disease characteristics in the emergency department (ED) and how that information predicts clinical course remain…
Appendicitis is the most common pediatric surgical emergency. Efforts to improve efficiency and quality of care have increased reliance on computed tomography (CT) and ultrasonography (US) in children with suspected appendicitis. To evaluate the effectiveness of an electronic health record-linked…
International rates of hospitalization for atrial fibrillation and flutter (AFF) from the emergency department (ED) vary widely without clear evidence to guide the identification of high-risk patients requiring inpatient management. We sought to determine (1) variation in hospital admission and…
We aimed to determine publication trends in leading clinical research journals (impact factor >20) during the rise of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and to check for an increase in publication times of non-COVID-19 original research articles. We collected…
To determine the effect of providing risk estimates of clinically important traumatic brain injuries and management recommendations on emergency department (ED) outcomes for children with isolated intermediate Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network clinically important traumatic brain injury risk factors.…
Appendicitis is a common surgical emergency in children, yet diagnosis can be challenging. An electronic health record (EHR) based, clinical decision support (CDS) system called Appy CDS was designed to help guide management of pediatric patients with acute abdominal pain…
Many emergency department (ED) patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE) who meet low-risk criteria may be eligible for a short length of stay (LOS) (0.19 for all). ED patients with low-risk PE reported high satisfaction with their care in follow-up…
Outpatient management of emergency department (ED) patients with acute pulmonary embolism is uncommon. We seek to evaluate the facility-level variation of outpatient pulmonary embolism management and to describe patient characteristics and outcomes associated with home discharge. The Management of Acute…
The overuse of cranial computed tomography (CT) to diagnose potential traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) exposes children with minor blunt head trauma to unnecessary ionizing radiation. The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network and the Clinical Research on Emergency Services and…
We sought to develop and validate a clinical calculator that can be used to quantify risk for appendicitis on a continuous scale for patients with acute abdominal pain. The pediatric appendicitis risk calculator (pARC) was developed and validated through secondary…
Many patients with atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter (AF/FL) who are high risk for ischemic stroke are not receiving evidence-based thromboprophylaxis. We examined anticoagulant prescribing within 30 days of receiving dysrhythmia care for non-valvular AF/FL in the emergency department (ED).…
Both the modified History, Electrocardiogram, Age, Risk factors and Troponin (HEART) score and the Emergency Department Assessment of Chest pain Score (EDACS) can identify patients with possible acute coronary syndrome (ACS) at low risk (
Existing literature suggests that patients with aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) and "sentinel" aSAH symptoms prompting healthcare evaluations prior to aSAH diagnosis are at increased risk of unfavorable neurologic outcomes and death. Accordingly, these encounters have been presumed to be unrecognized…
Field triage guidelines recommend transport of head-injured patients on anticoagulants or antiplatelets to a higher-level trauma center based on studies suggesting a high incidence of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage (tICH). We compared the incidence of tICH in older adults transported by…
Little is known about the use of ibutilide for cardioversion in atrial fibrillation and flutter outside of clinical trials. We seek to describe patient characteristics, ibutilide administration patterns, cardioversion rates, and adverse outcomes in the community emergency department (ED) setting.…
Field triage guidelines recommend that emergency medical services (EMS) providers consider transport of head-injured older adults with anticoagulation use to trauma centers. However, the triage patterns and the incidence of intracranial hemorrhage or neurosurgery in these patients are unknown. Our…
We determined whether implementing the Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) traumatic brain injury (TBI) prediction rules and providing risks of clinically important TBIs (ciTBIs) with computerized clinical decision support (CDS) reduces computed tomography (CT) use for children with…
The Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (PESI) is a validated prognostic score to estimate the 30-day mortality of emergency department (ED) patients with acute pulmonary embolism (PE). A simplified version (sPESI) was derived but has not been as well studied in…
Adoption of clinical decision support (CDS) tools by clinicians is often limited by workflow barriers. We sought to assess characteristics associated with clinician use of an electronic health record-embedded clinical decision support system (CDSS). In a prospective study on emergency…
Prior studies examining the sensitivity of cranial computed tomography (CT) for the detection of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) have used the final radiology report as the reference standard. However, optimal sensitivity may have been underestimated due to misinterpretation of reportedly normal…
For children who present to emergency departments (EDs) due to blunt head trauma, ED clinicians must decide who requires computed tomography (CT) scanning to evaluate for traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) derived and…
We identify characteristics of patients with atrial fibrillation or flutter associated with favorable assessments of emergency department (ED) effectiveness and 30-day quality of life. As part of a prospective observational study of ED management and short-term outcomes of patients with…
Electronic health record systems with computerized physician order entry and condition-specific order sets are intended to standardize patient management and minimize errors of omission. However, the effect of these systems on disease-specific process measures and patient outcomes is not well…
Recently proposed cutoff criteria for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analyses might safely exclude a diagnosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). The objective of this study was to examine the sensitivity of a CSF red blood cell (RBC) count greater than 2000…
Application of a clinical decision rule for subarachnoid hemorrhage, in combination with cranial computed tomography (CT) performed within six hours of ictus (early cranial CT), may be able to reasonably exclude a diagnosis of aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH). This study's…
We evaluated emergency physicians' (EP) current perceptions, practice, and attitudes towards evaluating stroke as a cause of dizziness among emergency department patients. We administered a survey to all EPs in a large integrated healthcare delivery system. The survey included clinical…
Historically, emergency department (ED) patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) have been admitted for several days of inpatient care. Growing evidence suggests that selected ED patients with PE can be safely discharged home after a short length of stay. However, the…
The rate of iatrogenic pneumothorax associated with thoracic central venous catheterization in community emergency departments (EDs) is poorly described, although such information is vital to inform the procedure's risk/benefit analysis. We undertook this multicenter study to estimate the incidence of…
Central venous catheterization (CVC) is thought to be relatively contraindicated in patients with thrombocytopenia or coagulopathy. We measured the 24-hour incidence of bleeding in septic emergency department (ED) patients undergoing CVC. This multicenter, retrospective cohort study included septic ED patients…
The objective was to assess clinician experience, training, and attitudes toward central venous catheterization (CVC) in adult emergency department (ED) patients in a health system promoting increased utilization of CVC for severely septic ED patients. The authors surveyed all emergency…
Central venous catheterization (CVC) can be an important component of the management of patients with severe sepsis and septic shock. CVC, however, is a time- and resource-intensive procedure associated with serious complications. The effects of the absence of shock or…
Integration of clinical decision support services (CDSS) into electronic health records (EHRs) may be integral to widespread dissemination and use of clinical prediction rules in the emergency department (ED). However, the best way to design such services to maximize their…
IMPORTANCE: The US federal government is spending billions of dollars in physician incentives to encourage the meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs). Although the use of EHRs has potential to improve patient health outcomes, the existing evidence has been…
OBJECTIVES: The objective was to investigate clinician knowledge of and attitudes toward clinical decision support (CDS) and its incorporation into the electronic health record (EHR). METHODS: This was an electronic survey of emergency physicians (EPs) within an integrated health care…
OBJECTIVES: The objective was to describe the rate of successful consent using an altered (deferred telephone) consent process in emergency department (ED) patients. METHODS: This study evaluated the consent process employed during a prospective, multicenter, observational study of outcomes in…
OBJECTIVES: Appropriate use of cranial computed tomography (CT) scanning in patients with mild blunt head trauma and preinjury anticoagulant or antiplatelet use is unknown. The objectives of this study were: 1) to identify risk factors for immediate traumatic intracranial hemorrhage…
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: We examined the impact of primary stroke center (PSC) certification on emergency department (ED) use and outcomes within an integrated delivery system in which EDs underwent staggered certification. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study of 30 461 patients…
STUDY OBJECTIVE: Patients receiving warfarin or clopidogrel are considered at increased risk for traumatic intracranial hemorrhage after blunt head trauma. The prevalence of immediate traumatic intracranial hemorrhage and the cumulative incidence of delayed traumatic intracranial hemorrhage in these patients, however,…
BACKGROUND: Differentiating between appropriate and inappropriate resource use represents a critical challenge in health services research. The New York University Emergency Department (NYU ED) visit severity algorithm attempts to classify visits to the ED based on diagnosis, but it has…
STUDY OBJECTIVES: We examine emergency physician knowledge of, attitudes about, and responses to patient cost-sharing in the emergency department (ED). METHODS: A convenience sample of emergency physicians from an integrated delivery system completed a questionnaire including self-report questions about knowledge…
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