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Characteristics and costs in adults with acute poisoning admitted to the emergency department of a university hospital in Belgium.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:The aims of this study were to assess the characteristics of all acute poisoning admissions among adult emergency department (ED) patients, to identify factors associated with admission and to calculate direct medical cost. METHODS:Data of 2017 (1st January to 31st December) were collected and analyzed retrospectively using patients' medical records and hospital invoices. Factors associated with type of hospitalization were identified using appropriate statistics. RESULTS:A total of 1,214 hospital admissions were included, accounting for 3.6% of all ED admissions. Men (62.2%) and the age group 21-40 years (43.0%) accounted for the largest proportion. Substances most commonly involved were ethanol (52.9%), benzodiazepines (9.7%), cocaine (4.9%), cannabis (4.6%), antidepressants (4.6%) and psychostimulants (4.6%). A total of 4,561 treatment acts were recorded, most commonly monitoring of vital signs (63.6%) and medication and/or intravenous drip administration (62.9%). Patients were discharged home after having received care in the emergency department (ED-amb) in 54.5% of admissions, were admitted to the emergency-department-24-hours-observation unit (ED-24h) or were hospitalized (Hosp) in 24.6% and 20.9% of admissions, respectively. Factors found to be associated with hospitalization type were age, hour of admission, victim location, degree of severity, use of antidotes, involvement of antidepressants, antipsychotics, psychostimulants, benzodiazepines and ethanol. Total cost was €1,512,346 with an average of €1,287 per admission. CONCLUSION:Poisonings entail a considerable percentage of patients admitted to an ED and financial burden. In particular, ethanol poisonings account for the largest proportion of all ED admissions. Comparison of our figures with other data is hampered by the heterogeneity in inclusion criteria. Availability of a uniform template would facilitate comparison and allow better monitoring policies for prevention and cost reduction.

SUBMITTER: Descamps AK

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6777762 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Characteristics and costs in adults with acute poisoning admitted to the emergency department of a university hospital in Belgium.

Descamps Anne-Marie K AK Vandijck Dominique M DM Buylaert Walter A WA Mostin Martine A MA Paepe Peter De P

PloS one 20191004 10

<h4>Objective</h4>The aims of this study were to assess the characteristics of all acute poisoning admissions among adult emergency department (ED) patients, to identify factors associated with admission and to calculate direct medical cost.<h4>Methods</h4>Data of 2017 (1st January to 31st December) were collected and analyzed retrospectively using patients' medical records and hospital invoices. Factors associated with type of hospitalization were identified using appropriate statistics.<h4>Res ...[more]

PMID: 31584988

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Project description:BACKGROUND:Whether types of hospitals with high readmission rates also have high overall postdischarge acute care utilization (including emergency department and observation care) is unknown. DESIGN:Cross-sectional analysis. SUBJECTS:Nonfederal United States acute care hospitals. MEASURES:Using methodology established by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, we calculated each hospital's "excess days in acute care" for fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries aged over 65 years discharged after hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure (HF), or pneumonia, representing the mean difference between predicted and expected total days of acute care utilization in the 30 days following hospital discharge, per 100 discharges. We assessed the multivariable association of 8 hospital characteristics with excess days in acute care and the proportion of hospitals with each characteristic that were statistical outliers (95% credible interval estimate does not include 0). RESULTS:We included 2184 hospitals for acute myocardial infarction [228 (10.4%) better than expected, 549 (25.1%) worse than expected], 3720 hospitals for HF [484 (13.0%) better and 840 (22.6%) worse], and 4195 hospitals for pneumonia [673 (16.0%) better, 1005 (24.0%) worse]. Results for all conditions were similar. Worse than expected outliers for pneumonia included: 18.8% of safety net hospitals versus 26.1% of nonsafety net hospitals; 16.7% of public hospitals versus 33.1% of for-profit hospitals; 19.5% of nonteaching hospitals versus 52.2% of major teaching hospitals; 7.9% of rural hospitals versus 42.1% of large urban hospitals; 5.9% of hospitals with 24-<50 beds versus 58% of hospitals with >500 beds; and 29.0% of hospitals with nurse-to-bed ratios >1.0-1.5 versus 21.7% of hospitals with ratios >2.0. CONCLUSIONS:Including emergency department and observation stays in measures of postdischarge utilization produces similar results as measuring only readmissions in that major teaching, urban and for-profit hospitals still perform disproportionately poorly versus nonteaching or public hospitals. However, it enables identification of more outliers and a more granular assessment of the association of hospital factors and outcomes.

Project description:ObjectiveRising emergency medical services (EMS) utilisation increases transport to hospital emergency departments (ED). However, some patients receive outpatient treatment (discharged) while others are hospitalised (admitted). The aims of this analysis were to compare admitted and discharged cases, to assess whether cases that were discharged from the ED could be identified using dispatch data and to compare dispatch keyword categories and hospital diagnoses.DesignRetrospective observational study using linked secondary data.Setting and participants78 303 cases brought to 1 of 14 ED in the city of Munich, Germany, by EMS between 1 July 2013 and 30 June 2014.Main outcome measuresCharacteristics of admitted and discharged cases were assessed. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association between discharge and age, sex, time of day, ambulance type and dispatch keyword category. Keyword categories were compared to hospital diagnoses.Results39.4% of cases were discharged. They were especially likely to be young (OR 10.53 (CI 9.31 to 11.92), comparing <15-year-olds to >70-year-olds) and to fall under the categories 'accidents/trauma' (OR 2.87 (CI 2.74 to 3.01)) or 'other emergencies (unspecified)' (OR 1.23 (CI 1.12 to 1.34) (compared with 'cardiovascular'). Most frequent diagnoses came from chapter 'injury and poisoning' (30.1%) of the 10th revision of the international statistical classification of disease and related health problems (ICD-10), yet these diagnoses were more frequent at discharge (42.7 vs 22.0%) whereas circulatory system disease was less frequent (2.6 vs 21.8%). Except for accidents/trauma and intoxication/poisoning many underlying diagnoses were observed for the same dispatch keyword.ConclusionYoung age and dispatch for accidents or trauma were the strongest predictors of discharge. Even within the same dispatch keyword category the distribution of diagnoses differed between admitted and discharged cases. Discharge from the ED does not indicate that urgent response was unnecessary. However, these cases could be suitable for allocation to hospitals with low inpatient bed capacities and are of particular interest for future studies regarding the urgency of their condition.

Project description:Aim of the study: Poor safety culture, bad teamwork, non-functional inter-departmental working relationships and increased cognitive demands are associated with higher amounts of adverse events in hospitals. To improve patient safety, one of the first steps is to assess safety culture among health care providers in an institution. Considering the sparsity of studies addressing patient safety culture in Europe and Switzerland, the aim of the present study was to assess patient safety culture in the emergency department of a University Hospital in Switzerland. Methods: We employed the Hospital Survey On Patient Safety Culture, developed by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. 140 questionnaires were distributed to nurses and physicians. Two weeks after the first questionnaire, we performed a sensitization campaign addressed to health care providers, and then repeated the survey. We calculated composite scores for each question category and percentages of positive responses for each dimension. For group comparisons such as possible differences relating to education and duration of employment and to compare results of the first and second survey we used T-tests. The results were compared to other published surveys outside of Switzerland. Results: Particularly positive assessments were found for the categories "nonpunitive response to errors", "teamwork within units", "supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting patient safety" and, compared to other hospitals, also "staffing". The lowest average percent positive responses were found in the categories "frequencies of reported event", "teamwork across units" and "handoffs and transitions". Nurses and health care personnel with a longer employment history had an overall more negative assessment of patient safety culture, when compared to physicians and personnel with a shorter duration of employment, respectively. Conclusions: The present study has identified strengths and potential weaknesses in the safety culture of a large university hospital emergency department in Switzerland. The results provide opportunities for improvement of patient safety in particular in the reporting of adverse events, in interaction across units and patient transitions. Furthermore, as we employed a standardized self-assessment tool similar to previously published studies, the work contributes to the establishment of a benchmark for hospital safety culture at the national, European and international level.

Dataset Information

Characteristics and costs in adults with acute poisoning admitted to the emergency department of a university hospital in Belgium.

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Characteristics and costs in adults with acute poisoning admitted to the emergency department of a university hospital in Belgium.

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