ED Crowding Adversely Affects Patient Satisfaction Key point: Dissatisfaction lasts throughout entire hospital stay. Citation: Pines JM, Iyer S, Disbot M, et al. The effect of emergency department crowding on patient satisfaction for admitted patients. Acad Emerg Med. 2008;15:825-831. Recent studies on emergency department overcrowding have shown adverse patient outcomes when patients are boarded in the emergency department. To address how patient satisfaction relates to ED overcrowding, these authors retrospectively reviewed Press Ganey satisfaction surveys …
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November 2008
Abstracts In Urgent Care: November, 2008
San Francisco Syncope Rule: Less Sensitive Than Previously Reported Key point: An independent validation study demonstrated a sensitivity of only 74% for predicting serious outcomes. Citation: Birnbaum A, Esses D, Bijur P, et al. Failure to validate the San Francisco Syncope Rule in an independent emergency department population. Ann Emerg Med. 2008;52(2):151-159. Most patients who present with syncope have benign etiologies, but, for some, syncope is caused by a potentially life-threaten- ing condition. Differentiating between …
Read MoreAbstracts In Urgent Care: October, 2008
A Short Video About What to Expect in the ED Increases Patient Satisfaction Key point: Showing the video to patients in the ED waiting room increased their satisfaction with the ED experience. Citation: Papa L, Seaberg DC, Rees E, et al. Does a waiting room video about what to expect during an emergency department visit improve patient satisfaction? CJEM. 2008;10:347-354. Assessment of patient satisfaction has become a component of physician and emergency department evaluation. Investigators …
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October 2008
September 2008
Abstracts in Urgent Care: September, 2008
Vasopressin Not Helpful for Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Key point: For now, epinephrine remains the only evidence- based drug option in CPR. Citation: Gueugniaud P-Y, David J-S, Chanzy E, et al. Vasopressin and epinephrine vs. epinephrine alone in cardiopulmonary re- suscitation. N Engl J Med. 2008;359:21-30. The ideal drug regimen for use in CPR is a subject of controversy. Epinephrine is the recommended vasopressor agent, but results of some studies suggest that combining epinephrine with vasopressin …
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July/August 2008
Abstracts in Urgent Care: July/August, 2008
It’s not Easy for ED Patients to Get Follow-Up Care Key point: Only 23% of attempts to schedule an outpatient follow-up appointment were successful in this study of callers posing as ED patients without primary care physicians. Citation: Vieth TL, Rhodes KV. Nonprice barriers to ambulatory care after an emergency department visit. Ann Emerg Med. 2008;51(5):607-613. Almost half of emergency department patients are dis- charged with instructions to follow up with an outpatient clinic or …
Read MoreAbstracts In Urgent Care: June, 2008
Prevalence of UTI in Children Key point: Prevalence is highest in infants younger than  3 months, girls with fever,  and uncircumcised boys. Citation: Shaikh N, Morone NE, Bost JE, et al. Prevalence of uri- nary tract infection in childhood: A meta-analysis. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2008; 27:302-308. During the past decade, many studies have assessed the preva- lence of urinary tract infection (UTI) in children with fever. In- vestigators conducted a meta-analysis of data from …
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