Browsing by Subject "Emergency departments"

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    Antibiotic prescribing errors generated by the use of an electronic prescribing system in the emergency department: A mixed-method study
    (United Arab Emirates Ministry of Health & Prevention, 2022) Al Meslamani, Ahmad Z.; Abdel-Qader, Derar H.; Ziad, Noura; Al Mazrouei, Nadia; El-Shara, Asma A.; El Sharu, Husam; Ali, Eman Merghani; Al Zahawi, Rand Haider; Ebaed, Samah Bahy Mohammed; Ibrahim, Osama Mohamed; Center for Health Innovation & Implementation Science
    Context: Inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics can result in serious patient harm. Aims: To investigate the incidence, nature, clinical severity, and causes of antibiotic prescribing errors (APEs) in the emergency department (ED) of a large hospital in Jordan. Methods: A mixed-method approach was used to explore the incidence and types of APEs by direct observation of electronic prescriptions (EPS) of antibiotics over four weeks, and to identify causes of errors by semi-structured interviews with ED physicians. The clinical severity of APEs was rated by a committee of experts. SPSS V26 and NVivo 10 were used for the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. Results: The incidence of APEs caused by the use of EPS was 4.3%. Wrong quantity (32.62%), wrong dose (15.25%), and duplicate drugs (13.55%) were identified as the most common types of APEs. More than one-third of APEs identified were deemed clinically significant, seven were serious, and one was lethal. Minor and significant antibiotic APEs across physicians who attended workshops on EPS and those who did not were 75.00% versus 46.77% (p = 0.001) and 18.75% versus 52.41% (p = 0.013), respectively. Three major causes of errors were identified: 1) System-related (system crash, drop-down menu), 2) user-related (lack of computer skills), and 3) workplace-related (overcrowding, inadequate staffing). Conclusions: APEs generated by the use of EPS were common in EDs in Jordan, clinically significant, and multifactorial. Further research is required to cover pharmacists' perspectives of this kind of errors.
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    Assessing Risk of Future Suicidality in Emergency Department Patients
    (Wiley, 2020-04-02) Brucker, Krista; Duggan, Carter; Niezer, Joseph; Roseberry, Kyle; Le-Niculescu, Helen; Niculescu, Alexander B.; Kline, Jeffrey A.; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background. Emergency Departments (ED) are the first line of evaluation for patients at risk and in crisis, with or without overt suicidality (ideation, attempts). Currently employed triage and assessments methods miss some of the individuals who subsequently become suicidal. The Convergent Functional Information for Suicidality (CFI-S) 22 item checklist of risk factors, that does not ask directly about suicidal ideation, has demonstrated good predictive ability for suicidality in previous studies in psychiatric outpatients, but has not been tested in the real world-setting of emergency departments (EDs). Methods. We administered CFI-S prospectively to a convenience sample of consecutive ED patients. Median administration time was 3 minutes. Patients were also asked at triage about suicidal thoughts or intentions per standard ED suicide clinical screening (SCS), and the treating ED physician was asked to fill a physician gestalt visual analog scale (VAS) for likelihood of future suicidality spectrum events (SSE) (ideation, preparatory acts, attempts, completed suicide). We performed structured chart review and telephone follow-up at 6 months post index visit. Results. The median time to complete the CFI-S was three minutes (1st to 3rd quartile 3–6 minutes). Of the 338 patients enrolled, 45 (13.3%) were positive on the initial SCS, and 32 (9.5%) experienced a SSE in the 6 months follow-up. Overall, across genders, SCS had a modest diagnostic discrimination for future SSE (ROC AUC 0.63,). The physician VAS was better (AUC 0.76 CI 0.66–0.85), and the CFI-S was slightly higher (AUC 0.81, CI 0.76–0.87). The top CFI-S differentiating items were psychiatric illness, perceived uselessness, and social isolation. The top CFI-S items were family history of suicide, age, and past history of suicidal acts. Conclusions. Using CFI-S, or some of its items, in busy EDs may help improve the detection of patients at high risk for future suicidality.
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    Improving Interpreter Access in the Pediatric Emergency Department: A Quality Improvement Initiative
    (Wolters Kluwer, 2024-07-10) Douglas, Katherine E.; Fox, Miriam T.; Cheston, Christine C.; Behara, M. Laxmi; Schoppel, Kyle A.; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: An increasing proportion of the population in the United States have limited English proficiency (LEP). Hospitals that receive federal funding must offer interpreter services. However, access is often lacking for patients. Patients with LEP are at higher risk for adverse events, and the Emergency Department is a particularly high-risk environment for these events. Methods: This quality improvement initiative took place from April 2021 to August 2022 in an urban, tertiary care Pediatric Emergency Department. A driver diagram informed four Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, and data were collected through medical record review, patient surveys, and staff surveys. We tracked outcomes using run and control chart data. Results: During the study period, the proportion of patients with LEP reporting "always" having an interpreter was unchanged (no centerline shift-control chart rules). Documentation of interpreter use for encounters with patients with LEP improved. Preferred language documentation and documentation of the need for an interpreter in the electronic medical record showed no change. Process measure data for staff-reported use of professional interpreters significantly increased, and the use of ad hoc interpreters decreased significantly. Length of stay did not change for English or LEP patients. Conclusions: This quality improvement initiative improved appropriate documentation of LEP and decreased use of nonqualified interpreters, although no change occurred in the proportion of patients who reported always having an interpreter. Patient satisfaction was unaffected.