The need for palliative and hospice care in the ED is increasing, requiring that emergency physicians be familiar with palliative and hospice care and competent in the delivery of rapid symptom management in patients with severe and life-limiting disease.
Educators in EM residency programs now have access to HPM content areas and milestones relevant to EM practice that can be used for curriculum development in EM residency programs. The HPM-EM skills/competencies presented herein are structured in a familiar milestone framework that is modeled after the widely accepted ACGME EM milestones.
Objective: Legitimate opioid prescriptions have been identified as a risk factor for opioid misuse in pediatric patients. In 2014, Pennsylvania legislation expanded a prescription drug monitoring program (PDMP) to curb inappropriate controlled substance prescriptions. The authors’ objective was to describe recent opioid prescribing trends at a large, pediatric health system situated in a region with one of the highest opioid-related death rates in the United States and examine the impact of the PDMP on prescribing trends.Design: Quasi-experimental assessment of trends of opioid e-prescriptions, from 2012 to 2017. Multivariable Poisson segmented regression examined the effect of the PDMP. Period prevalence comparison of opioid e-prescriptions across the care continuum in 2016.Results: There were 62,661 opioid e-prescriptions identified during the study period. Combination opioid/non-opioid prescriptions decreased, while oxycodone prescriptions increased. Seasonal variation was evident. Of 110,884 inpatient encounters, multivariable regression demonstrated lower odds of an opioid being prescribed at discharge per month of the study period (p 0.001) and a significant interaction between passage of the PDMP legislation and time (p = 0.03). Black patients had lower odds of receiving an opioid at discharge compared to white patients. Inpatients had significantly greater odds of receiving an opioid compared to emergency department (Prevalence Odds Ratio 7.1 [95% confidence interval: 6.9-7.3]; p 0.001) and outpatient (398.9 [355.5-447.5]; p 0.001) encounters.Conclusion: In a large pediatric health system, oxycodone has emerged as the most commonly prescribed opioid in recent years. Early evidence indicates that a state-run drug monitoring program is associated with reduced opioid prescribing. Additional study is necessary to examine the relationship between opioid prescriptions and race.
Objective: This study aims to evaluate the potential impact of addressing goals-of-care (GOC) with selected patients in the emergency department (ED), GOC documentation, hospital utilization, and patient satisfaction. Method: This is a single-center, retrospective, and prospective, observational convenience-sample study. ED registered nurses (ED RNs) received standardized GOC conversation training. Their selection criteria included a selection interview, a minimum of 3 years of ED clinical experience, and current employment in the ED. ED RNs used a standardized GOC questionnaire. Patient inclusion criteria included age ≥18 years and one or more of the following: chronic kidney disease ≥ stage III, congestive heart failure with an ejection fraction ≤ 40%, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease with home oxygen use, and/or malignancy with metastasis. GOC conversations were recorded in the electronic medical record (EMR). Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) forms were completed as appropriate. Select individual patient data for the 12 months prior to the conversation were compared with the following 12 months. Results: Over 6 months, 94 of 133 patients who were approached consented to the GOC discussion with the RN. All 94 enrolled patients had their GOC recorded into the EMR. One-third already had a completed POLST form prior to ED arrival. 50% without a POLST on ED arrival left with a completed POLST. Eighty-four patients survived the index visit and 46 patients survived to study completion. Patient satisfaction with the interaction was high: In the cohort who survived past the index visit, 95% rated their experience at 4/5 or 5/5 (Likert scale, 5: strongly agree, 1: strongly disagree). In the survival-to-study completion cohort, 100% rated their experience as 4/5 or 5/5. Subsequent median ED visits decreased by 15% (1.0-4.0 interquartile range). There were no statistically significant changes in hospitalizations (both decreased by 25%, 0-3.0) or intensive care unit admissions (0%, 0-0). Conclusions: An ED RN-led GOC conversation had high patient satisfaction and 100% GOC documentation in the EMR. There was a significant increase in ED POLST form completion. There were no significant changes noted in subsequent hospitalizations, length of hospitalization, or intensive care unit utilization.
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