Prescription errors by emergency physicians for inpatients are associated with emergency department length of stay.

OBJECTIVES: Adverse drug events are the sixth-leading cause of death in Western countries and are also more frequent in emergency departments (EDs). In some hospitals or on some occasions, ED physicians prescribe for patients who they have admitted. These prescriptions are then followed by the wards and can persist for several days. Our objectives were to determine the frequency of prescription errors for patients over 18years old hospitalized from ED to medical or surgical wards, and whether there exists a relationship between those prescription errors and ED LOS. METHODS: This was a single center retrospective study that was conduct in the ED of a university hospital with an annual census of 65 000 patients. The population studied consisted of patients over 18years old hospitalized from ED to medical or surgical wards between January 1st, 2012 and January 21st, 2012. RESULTS: Six hundred eight patients were included. One hundred fifty-four (25%) patients had prescription errors. Prescription errors were associated with increased ED length of stay (OR=2.47; 95% CIs [1.58; 3.92]) and polypharmacy (OR=1.78; 95% CIs [1.20; 2.66]). Fewer prescription errors were found when the patient was examined in the ED by a consultant (OR=0.61; 95% CIs [0.41; 0.91]) and when the medical history was known (OR=0.28; 95% CIs [0.10; 0.88]). CONCLUSION: Prescription errors occurred frequently in the ED. We assume that a clear communication and cooperation between EPs and consultants may help improve prescription accuracy.

Out-of-hospital Times Using Helicopters Versus Ground Services for Emergency Patients.

OBJECTIVE: Minimizing out-of-hospital time reduces morbidity and mortality in patients with severe trauma, acute coronary syndrome, or acute stroke. Our objective was to compare out-of-hospital times by helicopter versus ground services when the estimated time of arrival on the scene was over 20 minutes. METHODS: We proposed a retrospective observational monocentric study following 2 cohorts. The helicopter group and the ground group included patients with severe trauma, acute coronary syndrome, or acute stroke transported by helicopter or ground services. RESULTS: Two hundred thirty-nine patients were included; 118 were in the ground group, and 121 were in the helicopter group. Distances for the helicopter group were higher (62.1 ± 22.5 km vs. 27.6 ± 10.4 km, P < .001). When distances were over 35 km, the helicopter group was faster. We identified distance, need for surgery, and intensive care hospitalization as 3 predicting factors for choosing helicopters over ground modes of transport. CONCLUSION: In cases of severe trauma, acute coronary syndrome, or acute stroke, emergency medical helicopter transport can be chosen over ground transport when patients are in a severe state and when the distance is further than 35 km from the hospital.

Impact of a computerized provider radiography order entry system without clinical decision support on emergency department medical imaging requests.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The adoption of computerized physician order entry is an important cornerstone of using health information technology (HIT) in health care. The transition from paper to computer forms presents a change in physicians' practices. The main objective of this study was to investigate the impact of implementing a computer-based order entry (CPOE) system without clinical decision support on the number of radiographs ordered for patients admitted in the emergency department. METHODS: This single-center pre-/post-intervention study was conducted in January, 2013 (before CPOE period) and January, 2014 (after CPOE period) at the emergency department at Nîmes University Hospital. All patients admitted in the emergency department who had undergone medical imaging were included in the study. RESULTS: Emergency department admissions have increased since the implementation of CPOE (5388 in the period before CPOE implementation vs. 5808 patients after CPOE implementation, p=.008). In the period before CPOE implementation, 2345 patients (44%) had undergone medical imaging; in the period after CPOE implementation, 2306 patients (40%) had undergone medical imaging (p=.008). In the period before CPOE, 2916 medical imaging procedures were ordered; in the period after CPOE, 2876 medical imaging procedures were ordered (p=.006). In the period before CPOE, 1885 radiographs were ordered; in the period after CPOE, 1776 radiographs were ordered (p<.001). The time between emergency department admission and medical imaging did not vary between the two periods. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show a decrease in the number of radiograph requests after a CPOE system without clinical decision support was implemented in our emergency department.

Consequences for overcrowding in the emergency room of a change in bed management policy on available in-hospital beds.

Objective Emergency rooms play an important role by providing continuous access to healthcare 24 h a day, 7 days a week, but the lack of available hospital beds has become a major difficulty. Changing bed management policy could improve patient flow. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the consequences of a change in patient prioritisation on available beds. Methods The study consisted of a computerised bed management simulation based on day-by-day data collected from 1 to 31 January 2013 in a teaching hospital. Real hospital data were used to power the computer simulation. The scenarios tested were: (1) priority for emergency and surgery; (2) priority for emergency and medicine; (3) priority for planned admissions and surgery; and (4) priority for planned admissions and medicine. The results of these scenarios were compared with each other and to actual data. Results This study included 2347 patients. The scenario that proved to be the least efficient was the one that gave priority to emergency patients presenting with a medical condition. The scenario that exhibited the best efficiency was the one that gave priority to planned admissions and surgery. Conclusions Changing policies for hospital bed management is worth exploring to improve hospital patient flow and length of stay. What is known about the topic? The lack of available hospital beds is a major difficulty in managing patient flow in emergency rooms (ERs). The ER patient flow competes against a flow of planned hospital admissions for the same beds and the lack of a clearly defined policy on either prioritising ER patient flow over planned admissions or vice versa contributes to a disordered system. What does this paper add? We compared several simulated scenarios corresponding to different bed management policies. The scenario that gave priority to planned admissions and surgery gave the most suitable results. What are the implications for practitioners? Postponing scheduled surgical patients was not an efficient procedure to solve hospital overcrowding.

Hospital out-lying through lack of beds and its impact on care and patient outcome.

BACKGROUND: When medical wards become saturated, the common practice is to resort to outlying patients in another ward until a bed becomes free. OBJECTIVES: Compare the quality of care provided for inpatients who are outlying (O) in inappropriate wards because of lack of vacant beds in appropriate specialty wards to the care given to non outlying (NO) patients. METHODS: We propose a matched-pair cluster study. The exposed group consisted of inpatients that were outliers in inappropriate wards because of lack of available beds. Non-exposed subjects (the control group) were those patients who were hospitalized in the ward that corresponded to the reason for their admission. Each patient of the exposed group was matched to a specific control subject. The principal objective was to prospectively measure differences in the length of hospital stays, the secondary objectives were to assess mortality, rate of re-admission at 28 days, and rate of transfer into intensive care. RESULTS: 238 were included in the NO group, 245 in the O group. More patients in the O group (86% vs 76%) were transferred into a ward with prescription completed. O patients remained in hospital for 8 days [4-15] vs 7 days [4-13] for NO patients (p = 0.04). 124 (52%) of the NO patients received heparin-based thromboembolic prevention during their stay in hospital vs 104 (42%) of the O patient group (p = 0.03). 66 (27%) O patients were re-admitted to hospital within 28 days vs 40 (17%) NO patients (p = 0.008). CONCLUSION: O patients had a worse prognosis than NO patients.