Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Indoor Tobacco Legislation Is Associated With Fewer Emergency Department Visits For Asthma Exacerbation In Children., Christina E. Ciaccio, Tami Gurley-Calvez, Theresa I. Shireman

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: During the past 3 decades, numerous cities and states have adopted laws that ban smoking in public indoor spaces. The rationale for these policies has been to protect nonsmokers from the adverse health effects of secondhand smoke.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the implementation of indoor smoking legislation is associated with a decrease in emergency department visits for asthma in children.

METHODS: This retrospective analysis used a natural experiment to estimate the impact of clean indoor air legislation on the rate of emergency department admissions for asthma exacerbation in children. Data were obtained from the Pediatric Health Information System. A …

The Influence Of Age On The Diagnostic Performance Of White Blood Cell Count And Absolute Neutrophil Count In Suspected Pediatric Appendicitis., Richard G. Bachur, Peter S. Dayan, Nanette C. Dudley, Lalit Bajaj, Michelle D. Stevenson, Charles G. Macias, Manoj K. Mittal, Jonathan Bennett, Kelly A. Sinclair, Michael C. Monuteaux, Anupam B. Kharbanda

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVE: White blood cell (WBC) count and absolute neutrophil count (ANC) are a standard part of the evaluation of suspected appendicitis. Specific threshold values are utilized in clinical pathways, but the discriminatory value of WBC count and ANC may vary by age. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the diagnostic value of WBC count and ANC varies across age groups and whether diagnostic thresholds should be age-adjusted.

METHODS: This is a multicenter prospective observational study of patients aged 3-18 years who were evaluated for appendicitis. Receiver operator characteristic curves were developed to assess overall discriminative power of …

Urgent Care And Emergency Department Visits In The Pediatric Medicaid Population., Amanda Montalbano, Jonathan Rodean, Juhi Kangas, Brian R. Lee, Matt Hall

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Background: Urgent care (UC) is one of the fastest growing venues of health care delivery. We compared clinical and cost attributes of pediatric UC and emergency department (ED) visits that did not result in admission.

Methods: Our study examined 5 925 568 ED and UC visits of children under 19 years old in the 2010 through 2012 Marketscan Medicaid Multi-State Database. Basic demographics, diagnoses, severity, and payments were compared. Between ED and UC visits, χ(2) tests were used for proportions and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used for continuous variables.

Results: The UC and ED had the same most common diagnoses. …

Current Workforce Characteristics And Burnout In Pediatric Emergency Medicine., Marc H. Gorelick, Robert Schremmer, Holly Ruch-Ross, Carrie Radabaugh, Steven Selbst

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

OBJECTIVES: Changes in health care delivery and graduate medical education have important consequences for the workforce in pediatric emergency medicine (PEM). This study compared career preparation and potential attrition of the PEM workforce with the prior assessment from 1998.

METHODS: An e-mail survey was sent to members of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on EM and to non-AAP members board certified in PEM. Information on demographics, practice characteristics and professional activities, career preparation, future plans, and burnout (using two validated screening questions) was analyzed using standard descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: Of 2,120 surveys mailed, 895 responses were received (40.8% …