scholarly journals Geriatric Visits to the Emergency Department at an Academic Tertiary Care Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-26
Author(s):  
Jameel T. Abualenain ◽  
Daniah M. Kamfar ◽  
Ekram S. Faden ◽  
Mohammed A. Basheikh

Objectives: Geriatric patients aged more than 60 years are a vulnerable group of patients needing special care in the emergency department. This study aims to determine the prevalence of geriatric patients visiting the emergency department and explore the various aspects of those visits. Methods: A retrospective chart review of all emergency department visits from August 2016 to July 2017 was performed at King Abdulaziz University Hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Results: Of 34,127 emergency department visits by adults, 6,533 (19.14%) were made by geriatric patients (age range, 60-115 years; average, 71.25 years), representing about 45 nationalities (48.62% were Saudi). Triage priority using the “Canadian Triage and Acuity Scale” showed that 36.08% of the visits were emergencies, 49.35% were urgent, and 14.57% were non-urgent. Most (40.47%) of the visits were made during the morning, almost double the number made at night (23.30%). Geriatric patients presenting with a single complaint represented 62.47% of these visits, those presenting with two complaints represented 31.01%, and those presenting three or more complaints, 6.52%. The most common complaints were dyspnea (25.28%), chest pain (13.16%), and abdominal pain (10.82%). In the final diagnoses, diseases of circulatory system were most frequent (15.20%). The admission rate was 28.38%, and the mortality rate was 1.94%. Conclusion: Geriatric patients visiting the emergency department represent one-fi ft h of all emergency department visits by adults. They commonly present with complex medical conditions, making the approach to their diagnoses more challenging. Therefore, we recommend paying greater attention using multidisciplinary services and follow up.

2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noman Ali ◽  
Nadeem Ullah Khan ◽  
Shahid Waheed ◽  
Syed Mustahsan

Objective: Our study aimed at identifying the characteristics and etiology of various causes of acute undifferentiated fever in patients presenting to the emergency department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted at the department of emergency medicine, Aga Khan University Hospital from January to June 2016. Adult patients presenting to Emergency department with acute undifferentiated fever were enrolled. Descriptive statistics were calculated in terms of mean±SD for continuous variables like age of the patients and duration of fever, whereas frequency and percentage were computed for categorical variables like gender and causes of fever. Results: A total of one hundred and fifty five patients were included. Out of these 97 (62.6%) were males and 58 (37.4%) were females. Most patients (25.2%, n= 39) were diagnosed as malaria followed closely by dengue fever (n=33, 21.3%) and then enteric fever (n= 10, 6.5%). while 41.9% (n=65) were diagnosed as suspected viral fever based on clinical judgment and inconclusive laboratory results. Conclusion: Malaria was found to be the most common confirmed cause of acute undifferentiated fever followed by dengue and enteric fever. The provision of accurate epidemiological data will enable resources to be directed towards key areas and will be of practical importance to clinicians. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.6.2334 How to cite this:Ali N, Khan NU, Waheed S, Mustahsan S. Etiology of acute undifferentiated fever in patients presenting to the emergency department of a tertiary care center in Karachi, Pakistan. Pak J Med Sci. 2020;36(6):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.36.6.2334 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 ◽  
pp. e10-e12
Author(s):  
Nour M. Moukalled ◽  
Phillipe T. Zakhia El-Doueihi ◽  
Rana J. Salem ◽  
Ali T. Taher

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 144
Author(s):  
Eman Spaulding ◽  
Laurie Byrne ◽  
Eric Armbrecht ◽  
Collin Jackson ◽  
Preeti Dalawari

This study examines how emergency department (ED) performance measures at an academic tertiary care center in the Midwest were affected by a regionally-adopted zero diversion policy. Two six-month periods before and after the policy was enacted were selected to measure differences in key performance measures, including left without treatment (LWOT), left without being seen (LWBS), left against medical advice (AMA), mortality, length of stay and hospital admission rate. Total ED census during the two periods was similar. While the zero diversion policy was in effect, LWOT and LWBS rates were 19.4% and 18.2% lower, respectively, than the prior period, p < .002; discharged patients had faster treatment times (228 + 8.0 minutes vs. 242 + 9.0 minutes), p = .015. No differences were observed in AMA or mortality rates. This study revealed no worsening of ED performance measures after adoption of a zero diversion policy. 


2021 ◽  
pp. 152483992110293
Author(s):  
Lauren B. Mulcahy ◽  
Monika K. Goyal ◽  
Joanna Cohen

Assault-injured youth have an increased risk of future violence. Identifying firearm access among youth in the emergency department (ED) creates an opportunity for interventions aimed at reducing future violent events. We performed this study to determine the extent to which children with assault-related injuries are screened for access to firearms in the ED. We performed a retrospective chart review of all medical records from adolescent ED visits to an academic, tertiary care pediatric hospital in Washington DC with ICD-10 codes related to assault in a 3-month period. We found that among 252 assault-related encounters, none had any documentation of firearm access in the provider note, social work note, or psychiatry consultant note. Therefore, we concluded that firearm access screening is rarely documented in ED visits among patients who present for an assault, highlighting an important missed opportunity for firearm access screening among this high-risk group.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-859
Author(s):  
Edmund Kwok ◽  
Glenda Clapham ◽  
Samantha Calder-Sprackman

Introduction: Public health response to the coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has emphasized social distancing and stay-at-home policies. Reports of decreased emergency department (ED) visits in non-epicenters of the outbreak have raised concerns that patients with non-COVID-19 emergencies are delaying or avoiding seeking care. We evaluated the impact of the pandemic on ED visits at an academic tertiary care center. Methods: We conducted an observational health records review between January 1–April 22, 2020, comparing characteristics of all ED visits between pre- and post-pandemic declaration by the World Health Organization. Measures included triage acuity, presenting complaints, final diagnoses, disposition, and mortality. We further examined three time-sensitive final diagnoses: stroke; sepsis; and acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Results: In this analysis, we included 44,497 ED visits. Average daily ED visits declined from 458.1 to 289.0 patients/day (-36.9%). For the highest acuity triaged patients there was a drop of 1.1 patients/day (-24.9%). Daily ED visits related to respiratory complaints increased post-pandemic (+14.1%) while ED visits for many other complaints decreased, with the greatest decline in musculoskeletal (-52.5%) and trauma (-53.6%). On average there was a drop of 1.0 patient/day diagnosed with stroke (-17.6%); a drop of 1.6 patients/day diagnosed with ACS (-49.9%); and no change in patients diagnosed with sepsis (pre = 2.8 patients/day; post = 2.9 patients/day). Conclusion: Significant decline in ED visits was observed immediately following formal declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic, with potential for delayed/missed presentations of time-sensitive emergencies. Future research is needed to better examine long-term clinical outcomes of the decline in ED visits during pandemics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghada El Khoury ◽  
Hanine Mansour ◽  
Wissam K. Kabbara ◽  
Nibal Chamoun ◽  
Nadim Atallah ◽  
...  

Background: Diabetes Mellitus is a chronic metabolic disease that affects 387 million people around the world. Episodes of hyperglycemia in hospitalized diabetic patients are associated with poor clinical outcomes and increased morbidity and mortality. Therefore, prevention of hyperglycemia is critical to decrease the length of hospital stay and to reduce complications and readmissions. Objective: The study aims to examine the prevalence of hyperglycemia and assess the correlates and management of hyperglycemia in diabetic non-critically ill patients. Methods: The study was conducted on the medical wards of a tertiary care teaching hospital in Lebanon. A retrospective chart review was conducted from January 2014 until September 2015. Diabetic patients admitted to Internal Medicine floors were identified. Descriptive analysis was first carried out, followed by a multivariable analysis to study the correlates of hyperglycemia occurrence. Results: A total of 235 medical charts were reviewed. Seventy percent of participants suffered from hyperglycemia during their hospital stay. The identified significant positive correlates for inpatient hyperglycemia, were the use of insulin sliding scale alone (OR=16.438 ± 6.765-39.941, p=0.001) and the low frequency of glucose monitoring. Measuring glucose every 8 hours (OR= 3.583 ± 1.506-8.524, p=0.004) and/or every 12 hours (OR=7.647 ± 0.704-79.231, p=0.0095) was associated with hyperglycemia. The major factor perceived by nurses as a barrier to successful hyperglycemia management was the lack of knowledge about appropriate insulin use (87.5%). Conclusion: Considerable mismanagement of hyperglycemia in diabetic non-critically ill patients exists; indicating a compelling need for the development and implementation of protocol-driven insulin order forms a comprehensive education plan on the appropriate use of insulin.


2021 ◽  
pp. 019459982110089
Author(s):  
Quinn Dunlap ◽  
James Reed Gardner ◽  
Amanda Ederle ◽  
Deanne King ◽  
Maya Merriweather ◽  
...  

Objective Neck dissection (ND) is one of the most commonly performed procedures in head and neck surgery. We sought to compare the morbidity of elective ND (END) versus therapeutic ND (TND). Study Design Retrospective chart review. Setting Academic tertiary care center. Methods Retrospective chart review of 373 NDs performed from January 2015 to December 2018. Patients with radical ND or inadequate chart documentation were excluded. Demographics, clinicopathologic data, complications, and sacrificed structures during ND were retrieved. Statistical analysis was performed with χ2 and analysis of variance for comparison of categorical and continuous variables, respectively, with statistical alpha set a 0.05. Results Patients examined consisted of 224 males (60%) with a mean age of 60 years. TND accounted for 79% (n = 296) as compared with 21% (n = 77) for END. Other than a significantly higher history of radiation (37% vs 7%, P < .001) and endocrine pathology (34% vs 2.6%, P < .001) in the TND group, no significant differences in demographics were found between the therapeutic and elective groups. A significantly higher rate of structure sacrifice and extranodal extension within the TND group was noted to hold in overall and subgroup comparisons. No significant difference in rate of surgical complications was appreciated between groups in overall or subgroup analysis. Conclusion While the significantly higher rate of structure sacrifice among the TND population represents an increased morbidity profile in these patients, no significant difference was found in the rate of surgical complications between groups. The significant difference seen between groups regarding history of radiation and endocrine pathology likely represents selection bias.


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Bjorklund ◽  
Emily A. Eismann ◽  
Roger Cornwall

ABSTRACT Background The importance of continuity of care in training is widely recognized; however, a broad-spectrum assessment across all specialties has not been performed. Objective We assessed the continuity of care provided by trainees, following patient consultations in the emergency department (ED) across all specialties at a large pediatric tertiary care center. Methods Medical records were reviewed to identify patients seen in consultation by a resident or fellow trainee in the ED over a 1-year period, and to determine if the patient followed up with the same trainee for the same condition during the next 6 months. Results Resident and fellow trainees from 33 specialties participated in 3400 ED consultations. Approximately 50% (1718 of 3400) of the patients seen in consultation by a trainee in the ED followed up with the same specialty within 6 months, but only 4.1% (70 of 1718) followed up with the same trainee for the same condition. Trainee continuity of care ranged from 0% to 21% among specialties, where specialties with resident clinics (14.4%) have a greater continuity of care than specialties without resident clinics (2.7%, P &lt; .001). Continuity of care did not differ between fellows (4.2%) and residents (4.0%, P = .87), but did differ between postgraduate years for residents (P &lt; .001). Conclusions Trainee continuity of care for ED consultations was low across all specialties and levels of training. If continuity of care is important for patient well-being and trainee education, efforts to improve continuity for trainees must be undertaken.


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