Mental health-related presentations to a tertiary emergency department during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant mental distress in populations globally. At the frontline of the pandemic, emergency departments (EDs) are the prime setting to observe the effects of the pandemic on the mental health of the population. We aimed to describe the trend of mental health-related ED attendances at an acute hospital in Singapore before and during the various stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This is a retrospective, descriptive study of patients who presented to the ED between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2020. Patients diagnosed with mental health-related systematised nomenclature of medicine who visited the ED during this period were identified and were placed into mental health diagnosis categories for analysis. A comparison was made between patients who presented before the pandemic (2019) and during the pandemic (2020). Results: During the study periods, we identified 1,421 patients, of whom 27 were excluded due to non-mental health-related diagnoses, leaving 1,394 patients for analysis. There was a 36.7% increase in mental health-related ED presentations from 2019 to 2020. The proportion of higher-acuity mental health-related ED attendances and number of suicide attempts also increased. Conclusion: Our study described an increase in the proportion of high-acuity mental health-related ED attendances during the COVID-19 pandemic. Emergency physicians must be cognisant of the effects of the pandemic on mental health. Further research should be conducted to better equip the healthcare system for handling all aspects of the pandemic.

Reducing blood sample hemolysis in the emergency department using S-Monovette® in aspiration mode.

Background: Blood sample hemolysis continues to be a significant problem in clinical practice. In vitro hemolysis rates up to 77% have been reported in literature. The use of manual aspiration techniques for blood sampling has previously been shown to reduce the burden of erythrocyte injury in the pre-analytical phase compared to the vacuum collection technique. This study compares the hemolysis rates between two blood sampling methods: 5.0 ml BD Vacutainer® SST™ (BDV) and 4.9 ml S-Monovette® serum gel tubes in aspiration mode (SMA). Methods: This was a prospective randomised controlled study conducted in an Emergency department (ED). A convenience sample of 191 adult patients, aged 18-90 years old, presenting at the ED and requiring blood samples for serum electrolyte was included in the study. Paired blood samples were obtained through an intravenous cannula from each patient with randomised order of blood draw using SMA or BDV. Patient data was obtained and hemolysis index (HI), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and serum potassium (K) levels measured. Results: The adjusted mean HI (35.2 vs 21.5 mg/dL, p < 0.001), serum K (4.38 vs 4.16 mmol/L, p < 0.001) and LDH levels (259.6 vs 228.4 U/L, p < 0.001) were significantly higher in blood samples taken using BDV compared to SMA. The frequency of severely hemolyzed (>150 mg/dL) samples was also higher in blood collected using BDV (16.2%) compared to SMA (0%). Conclusions: The burden of hemolysis in blood samples taken from IV cannulae can be effectively reduced with the use of manual aspiration using the S-Monovette® blood collection system as compared to BD-Vacutainer.

End-of-Life Communication in the Emergency Department: The Emergency Physicians' Perspectives.

Introduction: End-of-life (EOL) conditions are commonly encountered by emergency physicians (EP). We aim to explore EPs' experience and perspectives toward EOL discussions in acute settings. Methods: A qualitative survey was conducted among EPs in three tertiary institutions. Data on demographics, EOL knowledge, conflict management strategies, comfort level, and perceived barriers to EOL discussions were collected. Data analysis was performed using SPSS and SAS. Results: Of 63 respondents, 40 (63.5%) were male. Respondents comprised 22 senior residents/registrars, 9 associate consultants, 22 consultants, and 10 senior consultants. The median duration of emergency department practice was 8 (interquartile range: 6-10) years. A majority (79.3%) reported conducting EOL discussions daily to weekly, with most (90.5%) able to obtain general agreement with families and patients regarding goals of care. Top barriers were communications with family/clinicians, lack of understanding of palliative care, and lack of rapport with patients. 38 (60.3%) deferred discussions to other colleagues (e.g., intensivists), 10 (15.9%) involved more family members, and 13 (20.6%) employed a combination of approaches. Physician's comfort level in discussing EOL issues also differed with physician seniority and patient type. There was a positive correlation between the mean general comfort level when discussing EOL and the seniority of the EPs up till consultancy. However, the comfort level dropped among senior consultants as compared to consultants. EPs were most comfortable discussing EOL of patients with a known terminal illness and least comfortable in cases of sudden death. Conclusions: Formal training and standardized framework would be useful to enhance the competency of EPs in conducting EOL discussions.

Clinical characteristics of spinning-induced rhabdomyolysis and other causes of rhabdomyolysis: a comparative study.

Introduction: Spinning is an indoor stationary cycling programme that can cause severe rhabdomyolysis. We compared the clinical characteristics of spinning-induced exertional rhabdomyolysis (SER) with other exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER) and non-exertional rhabdomyolysis (NER). Methods: This was a retrospective observational study of adult patients presenting with rhabdomyolysis to an emergency department from August 2018 to August 2019. Patients were classified as SER, ER or NER based on chart review. We compared patient demographics, serum creatine kinase (CK), transaminase and creatinine levels, admission rates, duration of hospitalisation and treatment prescribed. Results: 62 patients were analysed. SER patients were predominantly female (77% vs. 24% vs. 26%, P < 0.01), Chinese (100% vs. 47% vs. 79%, P < 0.01) and younger (mean age 27.7 vs. 34.6 vs. 59.4 years, P < 0.01) than those with ER and NER. The SER group had the highest CK level (20,000 vs. 10,465 vs. 6,007 U/L, P < 0.01) but the lowest mean serum creatinine level (53.5 vs. 80.9 vs. 143.5 µmol/L, P < 0.01) compared to the ER and NER groups. Admission rates were the highest in SER patients (100% vs. 57% vs. 90%, P < 0.01). SER mean inpatient length of stay was longer than ER but shorter than NER patients (4.3 vs. 1.9 vs. 6.0 days, P = 0.02). Conclusion: SER is a unique form of rhabdomyolysis. Predominantly seen in young, healthy women, it often presents with extremely high CK levels. However, the prognosis is good and the rate of complication is low with fluid treatment.

A conceptual framework for Emergency department design in a pandemic.

BACKGROUND: The current COVID-19 pandemic is highlighting gaps around the world in the design and workflow of Emergency Departments (ED). These gaps have an impact on both patient care and staff safety and represent a risk to public health. There is a need for a conceptual framework to guide ED design and workflow to address these challenges. Such a framework is important as the ED environment will always remain vulnerable to infectious diseases outbreaks in the future. AIMS: This paper aims to address issues and principles around ED design and workflow amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose a conceptual framework and checklist for EDs to be prepared for future outbreaks as well. METHODS: A scoping literature review was conducted, of the experiences of EDs in managing outbreaks such as SARS, H1N1 and COVID-19. The combined experiences of the authors and the experiences from the literature were grouped under common themes to develop the conceptual framework. RESULTS: Four key principles were derived- (1) situational awareness, surveillance and perimeter defence, (2) ED staff protection, (3) surge capacity management and (4) ED recovery. The findings were integrated in a proposed conceptual framework to guide ED design in response to an infectious disease outbreak. There are various elements which need to be considered at ED input, throughput and output. These elements can be categorised into (1) system (workflow, protocols and communication), (2) staff (human resources), (3) space (infrastructure), and (4) supply (logistics) and are placed in a checklist for pragmatic use. CONCLUSION: The ED needs to be in a constant state of preparedness. A framework can be useful to guide ED design and workflow to achieve this. As all ED systems are different with varying capabilities, our framework may help EDs across the world prepare for infectious disease outbreaks.