Pediatric Patients Brought by Emergency Medical Services to the Emergency Department: An Analysis From the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE: To describe the epidemiology of emergency department (ED) visits by pediatric patients transported from the out-of-hospital setting (ie, scene) by emergency medical services (EMS), and identify factors associated with EMS transport. METHODS: We performed a cross-sectional study of ED visits from 2014 to 2017 utilizing a nationally representative probability sample survey of visits to US EDs. We included pediatric patients (<18 years old) and compared encounters transported from the scene by EMS to those who arrived to the ED by all other means. We performed multivariable logistic regression to identify factors associated with scene EMS transport. RESULTS: Of 130.2 million pediatric ED encounters, 4.7 million (3.8%) arrived by EMS. Most patients were White (61.1%), non-Hispanic (77.5%), and publicly insured (52.2%). Multivariable analysis demonstrated associations with EMS transport: Black (vs White) race (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 1.48; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.16-1.89), ages 1 to younger than 5 years (aOR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.37-0.72) and 5 to younger than 12 years (aOR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.40-0.80) (vs adolescents), pediatric (aOR, 0.60; 95% CI, 0.42-0.85) and nonmetropolitan hospital status (aOR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.35-0.78), blood testing (aOR, 2.34; 95% CI, 1.71-3.19), time to evaluation (31-60 minutes [aOR, 0.56; 95% CI, 0.39-0.80] and >60 minutes [aOR, 0.51; 95% CI, 0.33-0.77] compared with 0-30 minutes), admission (aOR, 3.20; 95% CI, 2.33-4.38), and trauma (1.80; 95% CI, 1.43-2.28). CONCLUSIONS: Four percent of pediatric ED patients are transported to the ED by EMS from the scene. These patients receive a rapid and resource intense diagnostic evaluation, suggesting that higher acuity. Black patients, adolescents, and those with trauma were more likely to be transported by EMS.

Improving Pediatric Readiness in General Emergency Departments: A Prospective Interventional Study.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the impact of a national interventional collaborative on pediatric readiness within general emergency departments (EDs). STUDY DESIGN: A prospective, multicenter, interventional study measured pediatric readiness in general EDs before and after participation in a pediatric readiness improvement intervention. Pediatric readiness was assessed using the weighted pediatric readiness score (WPRS) on a 100-point scale. The study protocol extended over 6 months and involved 3 phases: (1) a baseline on-site assessment of pediatric readiness and simulated quality of care; (2) pediatric readiness interventions; and (3) a follow-up on-site assessment of WPRS. The intervention phase included a benchmarking performance report, resources toolkits, and ongoing interactions between general EDs and academic medical centers. RESULTS: Thirty-six general EDs were enrolled, and 34 (94%) completed the study. Four EDs (11%) were located in Canada, and the rest were in the US. The mean improvement in WPRS was 16.3 (P < .001) from a baseline of 62.4 (SEM = 2.2) to 78.7 (SEM = 2.1), with significant improvement in the domains of administration/coordination of care; policies, protocol, and procedures; and quality improvement. Six EDs (17%) were fully adherent to the protocol timeline. CONCLUSIONS: Implementing a collaborative intervention model including simulation and quality improvement initiatives is associated with improvement in WPRS when disseminated to a diverse group of general EDs partnering with their regional pediatric academic medical centers. This work provides evidence that innovative collaboration facilitated by academic medical centers can serve as an effective strategy to improve pediatric readiness and processes of care.

Risk of Serious Bacterial Infection in Infants Aged ≤60 Days Presenting to Emergency Departments with a History of Fever Only.

OBJECTIVE: To compare the risk of serious bacterial infection between infants aged ≤60 days who are febrile in the emergency department (ED) and those who have only a history of fever and are afebrile on arrival to the ED. STUDY DESIGN: In this secondary analysis of a multicenter prospective study using data collected between December 2008 and May 2013, we compared the rate of serious bacterial infection (urinary tract infection [UTI], bacteremia, and/or bacterial meningitis) between infants who have a history of fever but are afebrile on arrival to the ED and those with fever documented in the ED (rectal temperature ≥38.0 °C) using relative risk (RR) with 95% CI. Stratified analyses were performed for age (≤28 and 29-60 days) and serious bacterial infection type. Infants born prematurely and those with a clinical focal infection or serious illness were excluded. RESULTS: A total of 3825 infants (mean age, 35.2 days; 56.9% male) were included. Of the 1233 (32.2%) who were afebrile in the ED, 108 (8.8%) had a serious bacterial infection (UTI, n = 94 [7.6%]; bacteremia, n = 19 [1.5%]; bacterial meningitis, n = 8 [0.6%]). Of the 2592 infants (67.8%) who were febrile in the ED, 331 (12.8%) had a serious bacterial infection (UTI, n = 285 [11.0%]; bacteremia, n = 61 [2.4%]; bacterial meningitis, n = 17 [0.7%]). The RR for serious bacterial infection for afebrile vs febrile infants was 0.68 (95% CI, 0.56-0.84). A lower risk of serious bacterial infection was also seen among afebrile vs febrile infants aged ≤28 days (RR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.52-0.93) and age 29-60 days (RR, 0.67; 95% CI, 0.50-0.89). CONCLUSIONS: The prevalence of serious bacterial infection is lower in infants aged ≤60 days with a history of fever compared with those who are febrile on arrival to the ED. The small risk reduction in this group is unlikely to alter decision making.

Epidemiology of Bleeding in Critically Ill Children.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the epidemiology of bleeding in critically ill children. STUDY DESIGN: We conducted a cohort study of children <18 years old admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit for >24 hours and without clinically relevant bleed (CRB) on admission. CRB was defined as resulting in severe physiologic derangements, occurring at a critical site or requiring major therapeutic interventions. Using a novel bleeding assessment tool that we developed, characteristics of the CRB were abstracted from the medical records independently and in duplicate. From the cohort, we matched each child with CRB to 4 children without CRB based on onset of CRB. Risk factors and complications of CRB were identified from this matched group of children. RESULTS: We analyzed 405 children with a median age of 35 months (IQR 7-130 months). A total of 37 (9.1%) children developed CRB. The median number of days with CRB was 1 day (IQR 1-2 days). Invasive ventilation (OR 61.35; 95% CI 6.27-600.24), stress ulcer prophylaxis (OR 2.70; 95% CI 1.08-6.74), surgical admission (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.10-0.84), and aspirin (OR 0.04; 95% CI 0.002-0.58) were associated with CRB. CRB was associated with longer time to discharge from the unit (hazard ratio 0.20; 95% CI 0.13-0.33) and the hospital (hazard ratio 0.49; 95% CI 0.33-0.73). Children with CRB were on vasopressor longer and transfused more red blood cells after the CRB than those without CRB. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that bleeding complicates critical illness in children.

Combination immunotherapy using adoptive T-cell transfer and tumor antigen vaccination on the basis of hTERT and survivin after ASCT for myeloma.

In a phase 1/2 two-arm trial, 54 patients with myeloma received autografts followed by ex vivo anti-CD3/anti-CD28 costimulated autologous T cells at day 2 after transplantation. Study patients positive for human leukocyte antigen A2 (arm A, n = 28) also received pneumococcal conjugate vaccine immunizations before and after transplantation and a multipeptide tumor antigen vaccine derived from the human telomerase reverse transcriptase and the antiapoptotic protein survivin. Patients negative for human leukocyte antigen A2 (arm B, n = 26) received the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine only. Patients exhibited robust T-cell recoveries by day 14 with supraphysiologic T-cell counts accompanied by a sustained reduction in regulatory T cells. The median event-free survival (EFS) for all patients is 20 months (95% confidence interval, 14.6-24.7 months); the projected 3-year overall survival is 83%. A subset of patients in arm A (36%) developed immune responses to the tumor antigen vaccine by tetramer assays, but this cohort did not exhibit better EFS. Higher posttransplantation CD4(+) T-cell counts and a lower percentage of FOXP3(+) T cells were associated with improved EFS. Patients exhibited accelerated polyclonal immunoglobulin recovery compared with patients without T-cell transfers. Adoptive transfer of tumor antigen vaccine-primed and costimulated T cells leads to augmented and accelerated cellular and humoral immune reconstitution, including antitumor immunity, after autologous stem cell transplantation for myeloma. This study was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as NCT00499577.

Factors Associated With Improved Pediatric Resuscitative Care in General Emergency Departments.

OBJECTIVES: To describe the quality of pediatric resuscitative care in general emergency departments (GEDs) and to determine hospital-level factors associated with higher quality. METHODS: Prospective observational study of resuscitative care provided to 3 in situ simulated patients (infant seizure, infant sepsis, and child cardiac arrest) by interprofessional GED teams. A composite quality score (CQS) was measured and the association of this score with modifiable and nonmodifiable hospital-level factors was explored. RESULTS: A median CQS of 62.8 of 100 (interquartile range 50.5-71.1) was noted for 287 resuscitation teams from 175 emergency departments. In the unadjusted analyses, a higher score was associated with the modifiable factor of an affiliation with a pediatric academic medical center (PAMC) and the nonmodifiable factors of higher pediatric volume and location in the Northeast and Midwest. In the adjusted analyses, a higher CQS was associated with modifiable factors of an affiliation with a PAMC and the designation of both a nurse and physician pediatric emergency care coordinator, and nonmodifiable factors of higher pediatric volume and location in the Northeast and Midwest. A weak correlation was noted between quality and pediatric readiness scores. CONCLUSIONS: A low quality of pediatric resuscitative care, measured using simulation, was noted across a cohort of GEDs. Hospital factors associated with higher quality included: an affiliation with a PAMC, designation of a pediatric emergency care coordinator, higher pediatric volume, and geographic location. A weak correlation was noted between quality and pediatric readiness scores.

Rapid immune recovery and graft-versus-host disease-like engraftment syndrome following adoptive transfer of Costimulated autologous T cells.

PURPOSE: Previously, we showed that adoptive transfer of in vivo vaccine-primed and ex vivo (anti-CD3/anti-CD28) costimulated autologous T cells (ex-T) at day +12 after transplant increased CD4 and CD8 T-cell counts at day +42 and augmented vaccine-specific immune responses in patients with myeloma. Here, we investigated the safety and kinetics of T-cell recovery after infusing ex-T at day +2 after transplant. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: In this phase I/II two-arm clinical trial, 50 patients with myeloma received autografts after high-dose melphalan followed by infusions of ex-T at day +2 after transplant. Patients also received pretransplant and posttransplant immunizations using a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine only (arm B; n = 24) or the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine plus an HLA-A2-restricted microltipeptide vaccine for HLA-A2(+) patients (arm A; n = 26). RESULTS: The mean number of T cells infused was 4.26 x 10(10) (range, 1.59-5.0). At day 14 after transplant, the median CD3, CD4, and CD8 counts were 4,198, 1,545, and 2,858 cells/microL, respectively. Interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-15 levels increased early after transplant and IL-15 levels correlated significantly to day 14 T-cell counts. Robust vaccine-specific B- and T-cell responses were generated. T-cell infusions were well tolerated with no effect on hematopoietic recovery. Eight patients (16%) developed a T-cell "engraftment syndrome" characterized by diarrhea and fever that was clinically and histopathologically indistinguishable from grade 1 to 3 acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) of the gastrointestinal tract (seven patients) and/or grade 1 to 2 cutaneous GVHD (four patients). CONCLUSIONS: Adoptive T-cell transfers achieve robust T-cell recovery early after transplant and induce moderate-to-severe autologous GVHD in a subset of patients.