A Pilot Study of a Measure of Parental Trust in Pediatric Emergency Department Care Teams.

OBJECTIVE: To modify and test an existing measure of trust validated in a primary care setting for use in a pediatric emergency department (PED). METHODS: The study population was parents/guardians who brought their child to an urban PED with a chief complaint of abdominal pain or head injury. We used a 2-phase design with modifications resulting from cognitive interviews with 15 participants followed by a field test with 150 participants. We measured usefulness by percent missing responses and ceiling effects. Cronbach's alpha and greatest lower bound measured reliability. As evidence of validity, we calculated a total trust score by summing the item scale values and correlating the score with measures of constructs shown to be positively associated with trust in other settings. We conducted a similar analysis to test a published shortened version of the same scale. RESULTS: Four items were modified prior to field testing. Ceiling effects for each item ranged from 53% to 67%. Missing data were minimal affecting only 2 items. The modified measure exhibited high reliability (Cronbach's alpha = .88, greatest lower bound = 0.93). Total trust scores ranged from 27 to 50 with mean (standard deviation) = 45.1 (4.9). The trust score exhibited a high positive correlation with communication and overall satisfaction, and moderate correlation with intent to adhere to physician recommendations. The short version of the scale performed similarly. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that the modified Wake Forest measure of trust is applicable and useful in the PED setting for this patient population.

Leveraging a Public Health Framework and Community Advisory Board to Innovate Workplace Violence Intervention Strategies.

Even with extensive evidence documenting the incidence, risk factors, and negative outcomes of workplace violence (WPV) against emergency department (ED) employees, there is a lack of intervention strategies reported that could be subjected to a clinical trial in the ED setting. The purpose of this article is to report the outcomes of a novel process adapted from the Framework for Program Evaluation in Public Health for soliciting intervention strategies from a WPV Community Advisory Board (CAB) organized by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration's WPV prevention guidelines. Ten professionals comprising both practitioners and researchers from a variety of disciplines ultimately constituted the WPV CAB. In total, 127 strategies to address WPV in ED settings organized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's WPV guideline elements were recommended. The use of a CAB and the Framework was shown to be effective for generating WPV intervention strategies.

A Real-Time Automated Patient Screening System for Clinical Trials Eligibility in an Emergency Department: Design and Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: One critical hurdle for clinical trial recruitment is the lack of an efficient method for identifying subjects who meet the eligibility criteria. Given the large volume of data documented in electronic health records (EHRs), it is labor-intensive for the staff to screen relevant information, particularly within the time frame needed. To facilitate subject identification, we developed a natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning-based system, Automated Clinical Trial Eligibility Screener (ACTES), which analyzes structured data and unstructured narratives automatically to determine patients' suitability for clinical trial enrollment. In this study, we integrated the ACTES into clinical practice to support real-time patient screening. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate ACTES's impact on the institutional workflow, prospectively and comprehensively. We hypothesized that compared with the manual screening process, using EHR-based automated screening would improve efficiency of patient identification, streamline patient recruitment workflow, and increase enrollment in clinical trials. METHODS: The ACTES was fully integrated into the clinical research coordinators' (CRC) workflow in the pediatric emergency department (ED) at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. The system continuously analyzed EHR information for current ED patients and recommended potential candidates for clinical trials. Relevant patient eligibility information was presented in real time on a dashboard available to CRCs to facilitate their recruitment. To assess the system's effectiveness, we performed a multidimensional, prospective evaluation for a 12-month period, including a time-and-motion study, quantitative assessments of enrollment, and postevaluation usability surveys collected from the CRCs. RESULTS: Compared with manual screening, the use of ACTES reduced the patient screening time by 34% (P<.001). The saved time was redirected to other activities such as study-related administrative tasks (P=.03) and work-related conversations (P=.006) that streamlined teamwork among the CRCs. The quantitative assessments showed that automated screening improved the numbers of subjects screened, approached, and enrolled by 14.7%, 11.1%, and 11.1%, respectively, suggesting the potential of ACTES in streamlining recruitment workflow. Finally, the ACTES achieved a system usability scale of 80.0 in the postevaluation surveys, suggesting that it was a good computerized solution. CONCLUSIONS: By leveraging NLP and machine learning technologies, the ACTES demonstrated good capacity for improving efficiency of patient identification. The quantitative assessments demonstrated the potential of ACTES in streamlining recruitment workflow and improving patient enrollment. The postevaluation surveys suggested that the system was a good computerized solution with satisfactory usability.

A Time-and-Motion Study of Clinical Trial Eligibility Screening in a Pediatric Emergency Department.

OBJECTIVE: Challenges with efficient patient recruitment including sociotechnical barriers for clinical trials are major barriers to the timely and efficacious conduct of translational studies. We conducted a time-and-motion study to investigate the workflow of clinical trial enrollment in a pediatric emergency department. METHODS: We observed clinical research coordinators during 3 clinically staffed shifts. One clinical research coordinator was shadowed at a time. Tasks were marked in 30-second intervals and annotated to include patient screening, patient contact, performing procedures, and physician contact. Statistical analysis was conducted on the patient enrollment activities. RESULTS: We conducted fifteen 120-minute observations from December 12, 2013, to January 3, 2014 and shadowed 8 clinical research coordinators. Patient screening took 31.62% of their time, patient contact took 18.67%, performing procedures took 17.6%, physician contact was 1%, and other activities took 31.0%. CONCLUSIONS: Screening patients for eligibility constituted the most time. Automated screening methods could help reduce this time. The findings suggest improvement areas in recruitment planning to increase the efficiency of clinical trial enrollment.

Factors influencing ED care of young children at-risk for clinically important traumatic brain injury.

OBJECTIVES: Care decisions for young children presenting to the emergency department (ED) with head injury are often challenging (e.g. whether to obtain neuroimaging). We sought to identify factors associated with acute management of children at-risk for clinically important traumatic brain injury (ciTBI) and describe symptom management. METHODS: Observational evaluation of children, ages 0-4years, presenting to a pediatric ED following minor head injury. Children with ≥1 risk element per the Pediatric Emergency Care Academic Research Network's decision rule were deemed "at-risk" for ciTBI. Clinician surveys regarding their initial clinical management were used to identify three care groups. Nonparametric tests analyzed group differences and logistic regression investigated associations of putative high-risk factors with neuroimaging. RESULTS: Of 104 children enrolled: (i) 30 underwent neuroimaging, (ii) 59 were observed, and (iii) 15 were discharged following the clinician's initial patient exam. Children with a non-frontal scalp hematoma were more likely to receive immediate neuroimaging and children not acting like themselves per caregiver report were more likely to be initially observed, relative to the other care groups (p≤0.01). Among high-risk factors, altered mental status (OR 5.12, 95% CI 1.8-21.1), presence of ≥3 risk elements of the decision rule (OR 3.5, 95% CI 1.2-10.6), unclear skull fracture on exam (OR 31.3, 95% CI 5.4-593.8), and age<3months (OR 5.3, 95% CI 1.5-21.9) were associated with neuroimaging. No child had ciTBI. TBI symptoms (e.g. vomiting) were infrequently treated. CONCLUSIONS: ED management varied for young children with similar risk stratification. Investigation of how age in concert with specific risk factors influences medical decision making would advance evidenced-based care.

Suboptimal Clinical Documentation in Young Children with Severe Obesity at Tertiary Care Centers.

Background and Objectives. The prevalence of severe obesity in children has doubled in the past decade. The objective of this study is to identify the clinical documentation of obesity in young children with a BMI ≥ 99th percentile at two large tertiary care pediatric hospitals. Methods. We used a standardized algorithm utilizing data from electronic health records to identify children with severe early onset obesity (BMI ≥ 99th percentile at age <6 years). We extracted descriptive terms and ICD-9 codes to evaluate documentation of obesity at Boston Children's Hospital and Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center between 2007 and 2014. Results. A total of 9887 visit records of 2588 children with severe early onset obesity were identified. Based on predefined criteria for documentation of obesity, 21.5% of children (13.5% of visits) had positive documentation, which varied by institution. Documentation in children first seen under 2 years of age was lower than in older children (15% versus 26%). Documentation was significantly higher in girls (29% versus 17%, p < 0.001), African American children (27% versus 19% in whites, p < 0.001), and the obesity focused specialty clinics (70% versus 15% in primary care and 9% in other subspecialty clinics, p < 0.001). Conclusions. There is significant opportunity for improvement in documentation of obesity in young children, even years after the 2007 AAP guidelines for management of obesity.

Developing an Algorithm to Detect Early Childhood Obesity in Two Tertiary Pediatric Medical Centers.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to develop an algorithm to accurately identify children with severe early onset childhood obesity (ages 1-5.99 years) using structured and unstructured data from the electronic health record (EHR). INTRODUCTION: Childhood obesity increases risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and vascular disease. Accurate definition of a high precision phenotype through a standardize tool is critical to the success of large-scale genomic studies and validating rare monogenic variants causing severe early onset obesity. DATA AND METHODS: Rule based and machine learning based algorithms were developed using structured and unstructured data from two EHR databases from Boston Children's Hospital (BCH) and Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Medical Center (CCHMC). Exclusion criteria including medications or comorbid diagnoses were defined. Machine learning algorithms were developed using cross-site training and testing in addition to experimenting with natural language processing features. RESULTS: Precision was emphasized for a high fidelity cohort. The rule-based algorithm performed the best overall, 0.895 (CCHMC) and 0.770 (BCH). The best feature set for machine learning employed Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) concept unique identifiers (CUIs), ICD-9 codes, and RxNorm codes. CONCLUSIONS: Detecting severe early childhood obesity is essential for the intervention potential in children at the highest long-term risk of developing comorbidities related to obesity and excluding patients with underlying pathological and non-syndromic causes of obesity assists in developing a high-precision cohort for genetic study. Further such phenotyping efforts inform future practical application in health care environments utilizing clinical decision support.

Family-Centered Pediatric Emergency Care: A Framework for Measuring What Parents Want and Value.

OBJECTIVE: To identify and describe dimensions of family-centered care important to parents in pediatric emergency care and compare them to those currently defined in the literature. METHODS: A qualitative study was conducted involving 8 focus groups with parents who accompanied their child to an emergency department visit at a large tertiary-care pediatric health system. Participants were identified using purposive sampling to achieve representation across demographic characteristics including child's race, insurance status, severity, and participant's relationship to child. Focus groups were segmented by patient age and presence of a chronic condition. They were moderated by a facilitator experienced in health-related topics. A 6-member multidisciplinary team completed a content analysis. RESULTS: Sixty-eight parents participated. They were female (77%); aged 20 to 29 years (19%), 30 to 39 years (47%), more than 40 years (31%); black (44%), white (52%); and married (50%). Their child's characteristics were: public insurance (52%); black (46%), white (46%); and admitted as an inpatient (46%). The analysis resulted in 8 dimensions: 1) emotional support; 2) coordination; 3) elicit and respect preferences, and involve the patient and family in care decisions; 4) timely and attentive care; 5) information, communication, and education; 6) pain management; 7) safe and child-focused environment; and 8) continuity and transition. Compared to those published in the literature, the most notable differences were combining involving family and respect for preferences into a single dimension, and separating physical comfort into 2 dimensions: pain management and safe/child-focused environment. CONCLUSIONS: The resulting dimensions provide a framework for measuring and improving the delivery of family-centered pediatric emergency care.

Sustained reductions in time to antibiotic delivery in febrile immunocompromised children: results of a quality improvement collaborative.

BACKGROUND: Timely delivery of antibiotics to febrile immunocompromised (F&I) paediatric patients in the emergency department (ED) and outpatient clinic reduces morbidity and mortality. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this quality improvement initiative was to increase the percentage of F&I patients who received antibiotics within goal in the clinic and ED from 25% to 90%. METHODS: Using the Model of Improvement, we performed Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles to design, test and implement high-reliability interventions to decrease time to antibiotics. Pre-arrival interventions were tested and implemented, followed by post-arrival interventions in the ED. Many processes were spread successfully to the outpatient clinic. The Chronic Care Model was used, in addition to active family engagement, to inform and improve processes. RESULTS: The study period was from January 2010 to January 2015. Pre-arrival planning improved our F&I time to antibiotics in the ED from 137 to 88 min. This was sustained until October 2012, when further interventions including a pre-arrival huddle decreased the median time to <50 min. Implementation of the various processes to the clinic delivery system increased the mean percentage of patients receiving antibiotics within 60 min to >90%. In September 2014, we implemented a rapid response team to improve reliable venous access in the ED, which increased our mean percentage of patients receiving timely antibiotics to its highest rate (95%). CONCLUSIONS: This stepwise approach with pre-arrival planning using the Chronic Care Model, followed by standardisation of processes, created a sustainable improvement of timely antibiotic delivery in F&I patients.

Preparing for International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, Clinical Modification implementation: strategies for maintaining an efficient workflow.

The International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, is required to be used by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services health care billing data starting in October 2015 in the United States. The International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision, is an update to the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, and contains approximately 70,000 codes compared with 14,000 codes. We aimed to discuss how our institution is updating the coding system in a manner that alleviates the possible burden placed on providers including more coding information required and longer load times. We performed a simulation test including testing the diagnosis calculator, timing, and how well the new and old codes mapped. We conducted a gap analysis to ensure that coding could begin in October of 2015 with minimal service interruptions. We will describe strategies and procedures to transition between systems while maintaining efficiency and helping to improve classification.

Automated clinical trial eligibility prescreening: increasing the efficiency of patient identification for clinical trials in the emergency department.

OBJECTIVES: (1) To develop an automated eligibility screening (ES) approach for clinical trials in an urban tertiary care pediatric emergency department (ED); (2) to assess the effectiveness of natural language processing (NLP), information extraction (IE), and machine learning (ML) techniques on real-world clinical data and trials. DATA AND METHODS: We collected eligibility criteria for 13 randomly selected, disease-specific clinical trials actively enrolling patients between January 1, 2010 and August 31, 2012. In parallel, we retrospectively selected data fields including demographics, laboratory data, and clinical notes from the electronic health record (EHR) to represent profiles of all 202795 patients visiting the ED during the same period. Leveraging NLP, IE, and ML technologies, the automated ES algorithms identified patients whose profiles matched the trial criteria to reduce the pool of candidates for staff screening. The performance was validated on both a physician-generated gold standard of trial-patient matches and a reference standard of historical trial-patient enrollment decisions, where workload, mean average precision (MAP), and recall were assessed. RESULTS: Compared with the case without automation, the workload with automated ES was reduced by 92% on the gold standard set, with a MAP of 62.9%. The automated ES achieved a 450% increase in trial screening efficiency. The findings on the gold standard set were confirmed by large-scale evaluation on the reference set of trial-patient matches. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: By exploiting the text of trial criteria and the content of EHRs, we demonstrated that NLP-, IE-, and ML-based automated ES could successfully identify patients for clinical trials.

EMR-linked GWAS study: investigation of variation landscape of loci for body mass index in children.

UNLABELLED: Common variations at the loci harboring the fat mass and obesity gene (FTO), MC4R, and TMEM18 are consistently reported as being associated with obesity and body mass index (BMI) especially in adult population. In order to confirm this effect in pediatric population five European ancestry cohorts from pediatric eMERGE-II network (CCHMC-BCH) were evaluated. METHOD: Data on 5049 samples of European ancestry were obtained from the Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) of two large academic centers in five different genotyped cohorts. For all available samples, gender, age, height, and weight were collected and BMI was calculated. To account for age and sex differences in BMI, BMI z-scores were generated using 2000 Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) growth charts. A Genome-wide association study (GWAS) was performed with BMI z-score. After removing missing data and outliers based on principal components (PC) analyses, 2860 samples were used for the GWAS study. The association between each single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and BMI was tested using linear regression adjusting for age, gender, and PC by cohort. The effects of SNPs were modeled assuming additive, recessive, and dominant effects of the minor allele. Meta-analysis was conducted using a weighted z-score approach. RESULTS: The mean age of subjects was 9.8 years (range 2-19). The proportion of male subjects was 56%. In these cohorts, 14% of samples had a BMI ≥95 and 28 ≥ 85%. Meta analyses produced a signal at 16q12 genomic region with the best result of p = 1.43 × 10(-) (7) [p (rec) = 7.34 × 10(-) (8)) for the SNP rs8050136 at the first intron of FTO gene (z = 5.26) and with no heterogeneity between cohorts (p = 0.77). Under a recessive model, another published SNP at this locus, rs1421085, generates the best result [z = 5.782, p (rec) = 8.21 × 10(-) (9)]. Imputation in this region using dense 1000-Genome and Hapmap CEU samples revealed 71 SNPs with p < 10(-) (6), all at the first intron of FTO locus. When hetero-geneity was permitted between cohorts, signals were also obtained in other previously identified loci, including MC4R (rs12964056, p = 6.87 × 10(-) (7), z = -4.98), cholecystokinin CCK (rs8192472, p = 1.33 × 10(-) (6), z = -4.85), Interleukin 15 (rs2099884, p = 1.27 × 10(-) (5), z = 4.34), low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1B [LRP1B (rs7583748, p = 0.00013, z = -3.81)] and near transmembrane protein 18 (TMEM18) (rs7561317, p = 0.001, z = -3.17). We also detected a novel locus at chromosome 3 at COL6A5 [best SNP = rs1542829, minor allele frequency (MAF) of 5% p = 4.35 × 10(-) (9), z = 5.89]. CONCLUSION: An EMR linked cohort study demonstrates that the BMI-Z measurements can be successfully extracted and linked to genomic data with meaningful confirmatory results. We verified the high prevalence of childhood rate of overweight and obesity in our cohort (28%). In addition, our data indicate that genetic variants in the first intron of FTO, a known adult genetic risk factor for BMI, are also robustly associated with BMI in pediatric population.

Hair tourniquet of the circumvallate papillae: a potentially "hairy" situation.

Oral foreign bodies and hair-thread tourniquets are fairly common findings. The combination of the two, however, is rarer. In this article, we present a case involving a hair-thread tourniquet of a circumvallate papillae (more commonly known as a "taste bud"). We discuss methods for removal of hair-thread tourniquets as well as techniques for examining children for oral foreign bodies.

Modifications and integration of the electronic tracking board in a pediatric emergency department.

Electronic health records (EHRs) are used for data storage; provider, laboratory, and patient communication; clinical decision support; procedure and medication orders; and decision support alerts. Clinical decision support is part of any EHR and is designed to help providers make better decisions. The emergency department (ED) poses a unique environment to the use of EHRs and clinical decision support. Used effectively, computerized tracking boards can help improve flow, communication, and the dissemination of pertinent visit information between providers and other departments in a busy ED. We discuss the unique modifications and decisions made in the implementation of an EHR and computerized tracking board in a pediatric ED. We discuss the changing views based on provider roles, customization to the user interface including the layout and colors, decision support, tracking board best practices collected from other institutions and colleagues, and a case study of using reminders on the electronic tracking board to drive pain reassessments.

A comprehensive view of parental satisfaction with pediatric emergency department visits.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: We develop a comprehensive view of aspects of care associated with parental satisfaction with pediatric emergency department (ED) visits, using both quantitative and qualitative data. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study using data from an institution-wide system to measure patient satisfaction. For this study, 2,442 parents who brought their child to the ED were interviewed with telephone survey methods. The survey included closed-ended (quantitative) and open-ended (qualitative data) questions, in addition to a cognitive interview-style question. RESULTS: Overall parental satisfaction was best predicted by how well physicians and nurses work together, followed by wait time and pain management. Issues concerning timeliness of care, perceived quality of medical care, and communication were raised repeatedly by parents in response to open-ended questions. A cognitive interview-style question showed that physicians and nurses sharing information with each other, parents receiving consistent and detailed explanations of their child's diagnosis and treatments, and not having to answer the same question repeatedly informed parent perceptions of physicians and nurses working well together. Staff showing courtesy and respect through compassion and caring words and behaviors and paying attention to nonmedical needs are other potential satisfiers with emergency care. CONCLUSION: Using qualitative data to augment and clarify quantitative data from patient experience of care surveys is essential to obtaining a complete picture of aspects of emergency care important to parents and can help inform quality improvement work aimed at improving satisfaction with care.

Gastrostomy tube replacement in a pediatric ED: frequency of complications and impact of confirmatory imaging.

BACKGROUND: Gastrostomy tube (g-tube) dislodgement is a common problem in special needs children. There are no studies on the frequency of complications after g-tube replacement for children in a pediatric emergency department (ED). OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study is to determine the frequency of misplacement and subsequent complications for children undergoing g-tube replacement in a pediatric ED and the impact of contrast-enhanced confirmatory imaging on ED length of stay (LOS). METHODS: This was a retrospective review of children presenting to a pediatric ED over 16 months. Subjects were included if they underwent g-tube replacement in the ED. Records were reviewed for historical and procedural data including patient age, g-tube age, ED LOS, documented difficulties replacing the tube, performance of confirmatory imaging (contrast-enhanced radiograph), and complications identified within 72 hours of ED visit. RESULTS: A total of 237 children met inclusion criteria. Three (1.2%) had evidence of g-tube misplacement, all of whom underwent confirmatory imaging. One complication from misplacement was identified (gastric outlet obstruction from overfilled balloon). Tract disruption was not identified for any subject. Eighty-four subjects (35%) had confirmatory imaging performed after replacement. Mean ED LOS in the imaged group was 265 vs 142 minutes for the nonimaged group (P < .001). No subjects with documentation of clinical confirmation had subsequent evidence of misplacement. CONCLUSIONS: For children undergoing g-tube replacement in a pediatric ED, misplacement and associated complications were rare. Confirmatory imaging was associated with a considerably longer LOS. In the presence of clinical confirmation, confirmatory imaging may be judiciously used.

Impact of electronic health record implementation on patient flow metrics in a pediatric emergency department.

Implementing electronic health records (EHR) in healthcare settings incurs challenges, none more important than maintaining efficiency and safety during rollout. This report quantifies the impact of offloading low-acuity visits to an alternative care site from the emergency department (ED) during EHR implementation. In addition, the report evaluated the effect of EHR implementation on overall patient length of stay (LOS), time to medical provider, and provider productivity during implementation of the EHR. Overall LOS and time to doctor increased during EHR implementation. On average, admitted patients' LOS was 6-20% longer. For discharged patients, LOS was 12-22% longer. Attempts to reduce patient volumes by diverting patients to another clinic were not effective in minimizing delays in care during this EHR implementation. Delays in ED throughput during EHR implementation are real and significant despite additional providers in the ED, and in this setting resolved by 3 months post-implementation.

The association of emergency department crowding and time to antibiotics in febrile neonates.

OBJECTIVES: The objective was to assess the relationship between emergency department (ED) crowding and timeliness of antibiotic administration to neonates presenting with fever in a pediatric ED. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of febrile neonates (aged 0-30 days) evaluated for serious bacterial infections (SBIs) in a pediatric ED from January 2006 to January 2008. General linear models were used to evaluate the association of five measures of ED crowding with timeliness of antibiotic administration, controlling for patient characteristics. A secondary analysis was conducted to determine which part of the ED visit for this population was most affected by crowding. RESULTS: A total of 190 patients met inclusion criteria. Mean time to first antibiotic was 181.7 minutes (range = 18-397 minutes). At the time of case presentation, the number of patients waiting in the waiting area, total number of hours spent in the ED by current ED patients, number of ED patients awaiting admission, and hourly boarding time were all positively associated with longer times to antibiotic. The time from patient arrival to room placement exhibited the strongest association with measures of crowding. CONCLUSIONS: Emergency department crowding is associated with delays in antibiotic administration to the febrile neonate despite rapid recognition of this patient population as a high-risk group. Each component of ED crowding, in terms of input, throughput, and output factors, was associated with delays. Further work is required to develop processes that foster a more rapid treatment protocol for these high-risk patients, regardless of ED crowding pressures.

Use of a discharge facilitator improves recall of emergency department discharge instructions for acute gastroenteritis.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the use of a bilingual discharge facilitator (DF) improves parental recall of discharge instructions in acute gastroenteritis in a pediatric emergency department (ED). METHODS: A nonrandomized educational intervention study with a historical control was conducted in a tertiary children's hospital between January 2004 and November 2004. English- or Spanish-speaking parents of patients aged 3 months to 18 years with conditions diagnosed as acute gastroenteritis were eligible. The standard discharge group received written discharge instructions and standard ED discharge protocols. The intervention group received the written discharge instructions reinforced verbally by the DF in the parent's language of choice. Recall of 7 warning signs and symptoms was assessed 24 to 48 hours after the ED visit for both groups. RESULTS: For the English-speaking subgroup, a mean of 3.5 (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.26-3.78) signs or symptoms was identified correctly by 71 subjects in the standard discharge group, and a mean of 4.1 (95% CI, 3.83-4.43) signs or symptoms was identified correctly by 94 subjects in the DF group. For the Spanish-speaking subgroup, a mean of 3.0 (95% CI, 2.67-3.36) signs or symptoms was identified correctly by 62 subjects in the standard discharge group, and a mean of 4.5 (95% CI 4.18-4.88) signs or symptoms was identified correctly by 64 subjects in the DF group. The differences remained significant after adjusting for patient age and the highest level of education attained by the parent. CONCLUSIONS: Verbal reinforcement of written discharge instructions by a bilingual DF improves parental recall of discharge instructions for gastroenteritis.

Impact of disaster drills on patient flow in a pediatric emergency department.

OBJECTIVES: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)-accredited hospitals must conduct disaster drills twice a year, with one incorporating a mass casualty incident to the emergency department (ED). The authors found no studies describing the potential negative impact on the quality of care real patients in the ED receive during these drills. The objective was to determine the impact that mass casualty drills have on the timeliness of care for nondisaster patients in a pediatric ED. METHODS: Since 2001, nine disaster drills involving mass casualties to the ED were conducted at the authors' institution. The authors studied 5-, 10-, and 24-hour blocks of time surrounding these events and defined quality measures as the timeliness of care in terms of length of stay (LOS) in ED, time-to-triage, and time-to-physician. Drill dates were compared with control dates (the same weekday on the following week). Paired t-tests were used to compare outcomes of interest between drill and control days. RESULTS: Nine drill days and nine control days were studied. There was no statistically significant difference between drill dates and control dates in average time-to-triage and time-to-emergency physician and average ED LOS. Admitted patients spent less time in the ED during drill dates. CONCLUSIONS: Disaster drills at this institution do not appear to significantly affect the timeliness of care to nondisaster drill ED patients. Attention should be paid to the quality of care "real" patients receive to ensure that their care is not jeopardized during an artificial stress to the system during a disaster drill.