Emergency Medicine Commons^™

Speed And Safety: Emergency Department Ultrasound Lockboxes For Peripheral Iv’S, M. Trifan, S. Schiff, D. Devlin, B. Warden, M. Magee

House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference (2016-2019)

Objectives

• To decrease the average amount of time needed to place an USGIV by installing lock-boxes with all necessary materials on the ultrasound carts.
• To eliminate a time-consuming step in gathering materials for USGIV, while satisfying safety standards for securing sharps in the department

Small Bowel Obstruction: Facilitating Diagnosis And Optimizing Resuscitation And Management, Robin Naples, Md, Kendrick Law, Md, Quinton Campbell, Md, Ryan Bateman, Md

House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference (2016-2019)

Introduction

As a common surgical emergency that presents in our Emergency Department, Small Bowel Obstruction (SBO) is a disease process where appropriate treatment relies on early detection, fluid resuscitation, and gastric decompression. Despite SBO representing a common emergency, many patients experience inadequate or delayed management as compared to established guidelines, potentially leading to suboptimal treatment and resolution of SBO. As order sets and alerts within Epic are in place for other disease processes whose management relies on timely diagnosis and fluid resuscitation (e.g. sepsis), objectives for our quality improvement plan involve incorporating elements of alerts and order sets within our …

Escalation Of Care After Admission Within 24 Hours, Joseph Jean, Md, Mitchell Berman, Md, Christopher Ponce, Md, Kory London, Md

House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference (2016-2019)

Objectives

1. Identify high risk patients in the ED who require hospital admission and may need higher levels of care.
2. Identify patterns or diagnoses in the ED that predispose patient care to escalations after admission.

Improving Emergency Department Efficiency Through Easier Access To Policies, Meryl Abrams, Md, Uma Damle, Md, Adam Brown, Do, Carlos Rodriguez, Md, Frederick Randolph, Md

House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference (2016-2019)

Objectives

1. We aim to help residents, faculty and auxiliary staff to more easily locate and use institutional clinical policies.
2. To improve patient safety by having the institutionally developed policies be more readily available.

Implementation Of A ‘Flow’ Attending Reduces Overall Ed Length Of Stay In Telehealth Intake Model, R. Fuega, K. Maloney, R. A. Band, B. H. Slovis, K. S. London, J. L. White

House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference (2016-2019)

Background

In an effort to improve our efficiency, the Department of Emergency Medicine recently transitioned from an in person physician triage model to a telehealth intake model. With this change, many new gaps have been identified. By uncoupling triage from the in person intake provider, we lost the ability to manage “quick” discharges, to provide secondary oversight of the patients in the internal waiting room, and to directly supervise patients seen in the fast track area. In order to address these new concerns, and to mitigate the loss felt by removing the in person provider from intake, a ‘flow’ attending …

Initial Response To The Opioid Crisis: Availability Of Buprenorphine And Warm Handoff In The Ed, Lauren Selame, Md, Benjamin H. Slovis, Md, Ma, Theodore Christopher, Md, Facep, Kory S. London, Md

House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference (2016-2019)

Background:

• The United States is in the midst of an opioid crisis.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has cited Emergency Departments (ED) as important centers for treatment and referral, including medication assisted treatment (MAT), which has been shown to be superior to motivational interviewing and referral alone.1,2
• While direct linkage to outpatient programs via the ED may be an opportunity to better serve this population, data on such “warm handoff” interventions are sparse.

Objective: We initiated an ED opioid use disorder (OUD) pathway, which aimed to initiate buprenorphine therapy and perform warm handoff directly into the community for …

It Takes A Village: Developing An Airway Management Bundle To Standardize Emergent Intubation Processes In The Emergency Department, James Sacca, Md, Daniel Casey Kim, Md, Dimitri Papanagnou, Md, Mph, Edd(C)

House Staff Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Conference (2016-2019)

Problem Definition

Airway management is at the core of emergent patient care. Emergent intubations in the Emergency Department (ED) at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) have been noted by staff to be variable and not standardized. Staff have also described that equipment tends to be difficult to locate during intubations.

There is no objective data to confirm these claims. Furthermore, there is no bundle in place to guide emergent intubations in the ED.

Our team sought immediate actions to improve ED airway processes.

Electrocardiogram And Cardiac Testing Among Patients In The Emergency Department With Seizure Versus Syncope., Jennifer L. White, Judd E. Hollander, Jesse M. Pines, Peter M. Mullins, Anna Marie Chang

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

OBJECTIVE: Cardiogenic syncope can present as a seizure. The distinction between seizure disorder and cardiogenic syncope can only be made if one considers the diagnosis. Our main objective was to identify whether patients presenting with a chief complaint (reason for visit) as seizure or syncope received an electrocardiogram in the emergency department across all age groups.

METHODS: We conducted a secondary analysis of data collected in the 2010 to 2014 National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey comparing patients presenting with a chief complaint of syncope versus seizure to determine likelihood of getting an evaluation for possible life threatening cardiovascular disease. …

Can Point-Of-Care Betahydroxybutyrate Testing Be Used To Predict Diabetic Ketoacidosis In The Pediatric Emergency Department?, Michelle Knoll

Research Days

No abstract provided.

Clinical Decision Making: A Case Study Of The Effects Of Evidence Based Medicine And Past Empirical Experience In The Emergency Department, Olivia Zeman-Renner

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

With a growing number of medical malpractice suits and the passage of policy that focuses on patient advocacy, an emphasis has been placed on research regarding the decision-making processes of physicians in everyday practices. Over the past decades, scholars have looked to specific clinical decision-making philosophies, how they can be implemented into practice, and the effects of such implementation, but little research has been done into the culmination of decision-making philosophies on a day-to-day basis. By focusing on single-case study of a Midwestern Emergency Department and asking Attending physicians to self-report their decision-making philosophies, this study serves as a transition …

Outpatient Treatment Of Pulmonary Embolism: A Single-Center Case Series, Annie Huyler, Casey Z. Macvane, Andrew Perron, Tania D Strout

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Background: Pulmonary embolus (PE) is associated with significant utilization of health care resources and financial burden Several additions that have allowed us to look at safely treating patients with PEs as outpatients:

• Simplified Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (sPESI) -Risk stratifies patients based on their age, vital signs, and past medical history

• Novel oral anticoagulants

Primary Objective: To describe the population, treatment strategies, short-term complications and outcomes associated with outpatient management of PE following treatment in the ED.

Seerratus Anterior Plane Block (Sapb) Improves Paine Control In Rib Fractures, Randy Kring, Peter Croft, David Mackenzie, Christina Wilson, Joseph Rappold, Tania D. Strout

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Background:

•Trauma is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Rib fractures are identified in at least 10% of all injured patients.

•Rib fractures can lead to significant respiratory complications, with pneumonia and respiratory failure occurring in up to 31% of patients with rib fractures. Early initiation of aggressive pain control and pulmonary hygiene with incentive spirometry are standard of care to prevent complications from developing.

•In the Emergency Department, patients with rib fractures typically receive systemic analgesia that is largely narcotic-based. This pain control strategy puts patients at risk for the side effects of narcotics such as constipation, …

Reducing Length Of Stay For Mental Health Patients, Faye Collins, Nancijean Goudey

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Background:

Our facility sees an average of over 200 mental health patients every month, with limited community resources. The length of stay (LOS) for these patients had slowly risen to unacceptable levels; the number of patients whose LOS was greater than 24 hours increased in fiscal year (FY) 2017, from 633 patients to 1145. Patients in crisis require expedited transfer to appropriate care locations. Our goal was to decrease the overall length of stay for mental health patients in the Emergency Department.

Utilization Of Acupuncture Services In The Emergency Department Setting: A Quality Improvement Study, John R. Burns, Jessica J. F. Kram, Vashir Xiong, Jeanne M. Stark Casadont, Tiffany A. Mullen, Nancy Conway, Dennis J. Baumgardner

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Purpose: Patients often present to the emergency department (ED) for pain. As opioid fatalities rise, alternative treatments are warranted for pain management. Acupuncture, a nonpharmacological treatment involving the insertion of needles into skin or tissue at specific points within the body, may help to decrease acute pain. Our study aimed to assess the utilization and impact of acupuncture in the ED for acute pain management.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of purposefully collected quality improvement data. Patients who were ≥18 years old and who presented to the ED at an urban medical center in Wisconsin during 2017 were offered …

Improving Bronchiolitis Care Across Multiple Care Settings Using A Deimplementation Bundle, Amanda Nedved, Kathleen Berg, Troy Richardson, Amanda Montalbano, Matthew B. Johnson

Posters

Despite the availability of a bronchiolitis CPG; variation in care practices still existed at our institution. The aim of our quality improvement (QI) project was to increase overall adherence with our institutional CPG in patients 60 days to 24 months of age diagnosed with bronchiolitis in the urgent care centers (UCC), emergency departments (ED), and general inpatient units from a baseline of 40.9% to 60% by the end of two bronchiolitis seasons.

Patients With Refractory Out-Of-Cardiac Arrest And Sustained Ventricular Fibrillation As Candidates For Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - Prospective Multi-Center Observational Study., Takahiro Nakashima, Teruo Noguchi, Yoshio Tahara, Kunihiro Nishimura, Soshiro Ogata, Satoshi Yasuda, Daisuke Onozuka, Naoto Morimura, Ken Nagao, David F. Gaieski, Yasufumi Asai, Hiroyuki Yokota, Satoshi Nara, Mamoru Hase, Takahiro Atsumi, Tetsuya Sakamoto

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: We investigated whether patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and sustained ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VF/pVT) or conversion to pulseless electrical activity/asystole (PEA/asystole) benefit more from extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR). Methods and Results: We analyzed data from the Study of Advanced Life Support for Ventricular Fibrillation with Extracorporeal Circulation in Japan, which was a prospective, multicenter, observational study with 22 institutions in the ECPR group and 17 institutions in the conventional CPR (CCPR) group. Patients were divided into 4 groups by cardiac rhythm and CPR group. The primary endpoint was favorable neurological outcome, defined as Cerebral Performance Category 1 …

Information And Readiness Build Resilience: The Role Of The Disaster Information Management Research Center, Stacey J. Arnesen, Florence Chang

Collaborative Librarianship

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) established the Disaster Information Management Research Center (DIMRC) in 2008 based on its history of providing health information for disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. The NLM long range plan (Charting a Course for the 21st Century: NLM's Long Range Plan 2006-2016) called for creation of a center to show "a strong commitment to disaster remediation and to provide a platform for demonstrating how libraries and librarians can be part of the solution to this national problem". NLM was urged to "ensure continuous access to health information and effective use of libraries and …

An Evaluation Of Risk Attitudes And Risk Tolerance In Emergency Medicine Residents., Carlos Rodriguez, Nishad A Rahman, Kory London, Robin Naples, Simran Buttar, Xiao Chi Zhang, Hyunjoo Lee, Joshua Rudner, Dimitrios Papanagnou

Department of Emergency Medicine Faculty Papers

Introduction Previous studies have shown that risk attitudes and tolerance for uncertainty are significant factors in clinical decision-making, particularly in the practice of defensive medicine. These attributes have also been linked with rates of physician burnout. To date, the risk profile of emergency medicine (EM) physicians has not yet been described. Our goal was to examine the risk profile of EM residents using a widely available risk tolerance and attitude assessment tool. Methods First-, second-, and third-year residents of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital's EM residency program completed the commercially available, unmodified Risk Type Compass, a validated instrument offered by Multi-Health …

Acute Fondaparinux (Arixtra) Intentional Overdose Via Self-Injection: A Case Report, Andrew L. Koons Do, Kenneth D. Katz Md, Matthew D. Cook Do, Robert D. Cannon Do, Gillian A. Beauchamp Md, Ryan M. Surmaitis Do

Department of Emergency Medicine

No abstract provided.

Beware Of Barbiturates: Coma And Hypothermia In A 94-Year-Old Woman Due To Combined Secobarbital And Pentobarbital Toxicity, Andrew L. Koons Do, Amy Wier Do, Kenneth D. Katz Md, Matthew D. Cook Do, Robert D. Cannon Do, Gillian A. Beauchamp Md, Ryan M. Surmaitis Do

Department of Emergency Medicine

No abstract provided.