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EDs Are Seeking to Minimize Restraint Use

At Hennepin County Medical Center’s ED, quality improvement and quality assurance have been a long-term focus. “There was an interest, particularly in the wake of the local and national events of the summer of 2020, to reexamine our restraint practices and look for opportunities to minimize coercive care in our ED,” reports Aaron E. Robinson, MD, MPH, a faculty physician in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Hennepin County Medical Center and assistant medical director at Hennepin Emergency Medical Services.

An Alternative Model for ECPR: Keeping the Pool of Physicians Skilled in the Procedure Small

Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or ECPR, is relatively new to UF Health’s Shands Hospital in Gainesville, FL. Interestingly, unlike the model for ECPR being deployed by hospitals in San Diego, where dozens of emergency physicians are being trained in the technique, developers of the ECPR program at UF Health have decided that it is important to restrict the number of emergency physicians who perform ECPR.

San Diego County EPs Making Sure Life-Saving Technique Is Available to Cardiac Arrest Patients

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that every year more than 365,000 people in the United States will experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. However, even in cases where quick-thinking bystanders skillfully administer cardiopulmonary resuscitation before paramedics arrive to take over, the odds of surviving a cardiac arrest are bleak. But what if there was a way to improve the odds of survival in such cases?

Delayed CT? ED Documentation Can Increase, or Mitigate, Risk

When CT scan delays occur, ED providers sometimes want to document in the chart all the factors beyond their control. “But trying to call out delays in the chart puts up a flag,” warns Bryan Baskin, DO, FACEP, vice chair of safety and quality at the Cleveland Clinic’s Department of Emergency Medicine and an assistant professor at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. Documenting objectively, such as stating, “The CT scanner was down for two hours,” is probably appropriate, he says.

Root Causes of Significantly Delayed CT Scans in ED Settings

EDs often experience delays obtaining computed tomography scans, with some patients waiting multiple hours for the test. This situation causes bottlenecks in patient flow, increasing length of stay and overall ED crowding.

Avian Flu Rears Its Beak Again in the United States

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an alert after a human infection with highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus in the United States following exposure to presumed infected dairy cattle. No human-to-human transmission of HPAI A(H5N1) virus has been identified.

High-Mortality Cryptococcosis Infection After COVID-19

A survey initiated by the Mycoses Study Group identified 69 cases of cryptococcosis following COVID-19 infection. The mortality rate was 59%, with cases in both immunocompromised and immunocompetent individuals.

More than Half of 2024 Measles Cases Hospitalized

A measles outbreak continues to hit Chicago, while surveillance nationally found 113 cases in 18 states as of April 4, 2024. With cases both in the community and in migrant shelters, the Chicago Health Department reported 61 measles infections as of April 11, 2024.

CDC Issues Alert on Spike in Meningitis

Infection preventionists should be aware of increasing cases of invasive Neisseria meningitidis, which currently are causing an 18% mortality rate and primarily infecting three risk groups: Black people, people with human immunodeficiency virus, and those in the age range of 30 to 60 years, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports in a public health alert.

All In: If You Share Patients, Collaborate

A regional decolonization collaborative among hospitals and long-term care facilities that commonly share patients led to decreased infections, hospitalizations, costs, and deaths caused by multidrug-resistant organisms, researchers reported.