Real-time estimation of inpatient beds required in emergency departments.

BACKGROUND: Long boarding time in emergency department (ED) leads to increased morbidity and mortality. Prediction of admissions upon triage could improve ED care efficiency and decrease boarding time. OBJECTIVE: To develop a real-time automated model (MA) to predict admissions upon triage and compare this model with triage nurse prediction (TNP). PATIENTS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted in four EDs during 1 month. MA used only variables available upon triage and included in the national French Electronic Emergency Department Abstract. For each patient, the triage nurse assessed the hospitalization risk on a 10-point Likert scale. Performances of MA and TNP were compared using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curves, the accuracy, and the daily and hourly mean difference between predicted and observed number of admission. RESULTS: A total of 11 653 patients visited the EDs, and 19.5-24.7% were admitted according to the emergency. The area under the curves (AUCs) of TNP [0.815 (0.805-0.826)] and MA [0.815 (0.805-0.825)] were similar. Across EDs, the AUCs of TNP were significantly different (P < 0.001) in all EDs, whereas AUCs of MA were all similar (P>0.2). Originally, using daily and hourly aggregated data, the percentage of errors concerning the number of predicted admission were 8.7 and 34.4%, respectively, for MA and 9.9 and 35.4%, respectively, for TNP. CONCLUSION: A simple model using variables available in all EDs in France performed well to predict admission upon triage. However, when analyzed at an hourly level, it overestimated the number of inpatient beds needed by a third. More research is needed to define adequate use of these models.

COMparison of Platelet reactivity following prAsugrel and ticagrelor loading dose in ST-Segment elevation myocardial infarctION patients: The COMPASSION study.

Prasugrel and ticagrelor are potent P2Y12-ADP receptor antagonists which are superior to clopidogrel in acute coronary syndromes. To date no clinical trial directly compared these two drugs. Platelet reactivity correlates with ischemic and bleeding events in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. Recent pharmacological studies have observed a delayed onset of action of these two drugs in ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We provide the first adequately powered pharmacological study comparing PR following ticagrelor and prasugrel loading dose (LD) in STEMI patients when the maximal biological effect is reached. In the present study, ticagrelor was associated with a lower rate of high on-treatment PR compared to prasugrel.

Be careful with triage in emergency departments: interobserver agreement on 1,578 patients in France.

BACKGROUND: For several decades, emergency departments (EDs) utilization has increased, inducing ED overcrowding in many countries. This phenomenon is related partly to an excessive number of nonurgent patients. To resolve ED overcrowding and to decrease nonurgent visits, the most common solution has been to triage the ED patients to identify potentially nonurgent patients, i.e. which could have been dealt with by general practitioner. The objective of this study was to measure agreement among ED health professionals on the urgency of an ED visit, and to determine if the level of agreement is consistent among different sub-groups based on following explicit criteria: age, medical status, type of referral to the ED, investigations performed in the ED, and the discharge from the ED. METHODS: We conducted a multicentric cross-sectional study to compare agreement between nurses and physicians on categorization of ED visits into urgent or nonurgent. Subgroups stratified by criteria characterizing the ED visit were analyzed in relation to the outcome of the visit. RESULTS: Of 1,928 ED patients, 350 were excluded because data were lacking. The overall nurse-physician agreement on categorization was moderate (kappa = 0.43). The levels of agreement within all subgroups were variable and low. The highest agreement concerned three subgroups of complaints: cranial injury (kappa = 0.61), gynaecological (kappa = 0.66) and toxicology complaints (kappa = 1.00). The lowest agreement concerned two subgroups: urinary-nephrology (kappa = 0.09) and hospitalization (kappa = 0.20). When categorization of ED visits into urgent or nonurgent cases was compared to hospitalization, ED physicians had higher sensitivity and specificity than nurses (respectively 94.9% versus 89.5%, and 43.1% versus 30.9%). CONCLUSIONS: The lack of physician-nurse agreement and the inability to predict hospitalization have important implications for patient safety. When urgency screening is used to determine treatment priority, disagreement might not matter because all patients in the ED are seen and treated. But using assessments as the basis for refusal of care to potential nonurgent patients raises legal, ethical, and safety issues. Managed care organizations should be cautious when applying such criteria to restrict access to EDs.