Objectives

To assess the relationship between age and 14-day serious events after an emergency department (ED) visit for syncope.

Design

One-year prospective cohort study.

Setting

Single academic ED.

Participants

Adult patients with an ED complaint of syncope or near-syncope.

Measurements

Treating physicians prospectively recorded the presence or absence of potential risk factors for serious clinical events. Patients were contacted by telephone at 14 days for a structured interview. A three-physician panel reviewed ED charts, hospital records, and telephone interview forms to identify predefined events. The primary outcome included any 14-day predefined event. A secondary outcome included any 14-day predefined event that was first diagnosed after the initial ED visit. Age was analyzed in 20-year intervals. Multivariate logistic regression controlled for baseline demographic, comorbidity, and electrocardiogram data.

Results

Of 592 eligible patients, 477 (81%) provided informed consent. Follow-up was successfully obtained for 463 (97%) patients. The age range was 18 to 96, and 47% of patients were aged 60 and older. There were 80 (17%) patients who had a 14-day event, including 18 (4%) with a delayed diagnosis. Compared with patients aged 18 to 39, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) of a serious outcome was 2.7 (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.9-8.4) for patient aged 40 to 59, 3.8 (95% CI=1.3-12) for patients aged 60 to 79, and 3.8 (95% CI=1.2-12) for patients aged 80 and older.

Conclusion

Age of 60 and older is strongly associated with short-term serious events after an ED visit for syncope.

Background

Over the last 20 years, numerous research articles and clinical guidelines aimed at optimizing resource utilization for emergency department (ED) patients presenting with syncope have been published.

Hypothesis

We hypothesized that there would be temporal trends in syncope-related ED visits and associated trends in imaging, hospital admissions, and diagnostic frequencies.

Methods

The ED component of National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey was analyzed from 2001 through 2010, comprising more than 358000 visits (representing an estimated 1.18 billion visits nationally). We selected ED visits with a reason for visit of syncope or fainting and calculated nationally representative weighted estimates for prevalence of such visits and associated rates of advanced imaging utilization and admission. For admitted patients from 2005 to 2010, the most frequent hospital discharge diagnoses were tabulated.

Results

During the study period, there were more than 3500 actual ED visits (representing 11.9 million visits nationally) related to syncope, representing roughly 1% of all ED visits. Admission rates for syncope patients ranged from 27% to 35% and showed no significant downward trend (P = .1). Advanced imaging rates increased from about 21% to 45% and showed a significant upward trend (P < .001). For admitted patients, the most common hospital discharge diagnosis was the symptomatic diagnosis of "syncope and collapse" (36.4%).

Conclusions

Despite substantial efforts by medical researchers and professional societies, resource utilization associated with ED visits for syncope appears to have actually increased. There have been no apparent improvements in diagnostic yield for admissions. Novel strategies may be needed to change practice patterns for such patients.

Background

Palpitations are a common emergency department (ED) complaint, yet relatively little research exists on this topic from an emergency care perspective.

Objectives

We sought to describe the perceptions and clinical decision-making processes of emergency physicians (EP) surrounding patients with palpitations.

Methods

We conducted 21 semistructured interviews with a convenience sample of EPs. We recruited participants from academic and community practice settings from four regions of the United States. The transcribed interviews were analyzed using a combination of structural coding and grounded theory approaches with ATLAS.ti, a qualitative data analysis software program (version 7; Atlas.ti Scientific Software Development GmbH, Berlin, Germany).

Results

EPs perceive palpitations to be a common but generally benign chief complaint. EPs' clinical approach to palpitations, with regards to testing, treatment, and ED management, can be classified as relating to one or more of the following themes: (1) risk stratification, (2) diagnostic categorization, (3) algorithmic management, and (4) case-specific gestalt. With regard to disposition decisions, four main themes emerged: (1) presence of a serious diagnosis, (2) perceived need for further cardiac testing/monitoring, (3) presence of key associated symptoms, (4) request of other physician or patient desire. The interrater reliability exercise yielded a Fleiss' kappa measure of 0.69, indicating substantial agreement between coders.

Conclusion

EPs perceive palpitations to be a common but generally benign chief complaint. EPs rely on one or more of four main clinical approaches to manage these patients. These findings could help guide future efforts at developing risk-stratification tools and clinical algorithms for patients with palpitations.

Palpitations is a common complaint in patients who visit the emergency department (ED), with causes ranging from benign to life threatening. We analyzed the ED component of the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey for 2001 through 2010 for visits with a chief complaint of palpitations and calculated nationally representative weighted estimates for prevalence, demographic characteristics, and admission rates. ED and hospital discharge diagnoses were tabulated and categorized, and recursive partitioning was used to identify factors associated with admission. An estimated 684,000 visits had a primary reason for visit of "palpitations" representing a national prevalence of 5.8 per 1,000 ED visits (0.58%, 95% confidence interval 0.52 to 0.64). Women and non-Hispanic whites were responsible for most visits. A cardiac diagnosis made up 34% of all ED diagnoses. The overall admission rate was 24.6% (95% confidence interval 21.2 to 28.1), with higher rates seen in the Midwest and Northeast compared with the West. Survey-weighted recursive partitioning revealed several factors associated with admission including age >50 years, male gender, cardiac ED diagnosis, tachycardia, hypertension, and Medicare insurance. In conclusion, palpitations are responsible for a significant minority of ED visits and are associated with a cardiac diagnosis roughly 1/3 of the time. This was associated with a relatively high admission rate, although significant regional variation in these rates exists.

Study objective

Routine ECG testing is recommended in the evaluation of syncope, although the value of such testing in young patients is unclear. For ECG testing, we assess the diagnostic yield (frequency that ECG identified the reason for syncope) and predictive accuracy for 14-day cardiac events after an episode of syncope as a function of age.

Methods

Adult patients with syncope or near-syncope were prospectively enrolled for 1 year at a single academic emergency department (ED). A 3-physician panel reviewed ED charts, hospital records, and telephone interview forms to identify predefined cardiac events. The primary outcome included all 14-day, predefined cardiac events including arrhythmia, myocardial ischemia, and structural heart disease.

Results

Of 592 eligible patients, 477 (81%) provided informed consent. Direct telephone contact or admission/outpatient records were successfully obtained for 461 (97%) patients, who comprised the analytic cohort. There were 44 (10%) patients who experienced a 14-day cardiac event. Overall diagnostic yield of ECG testing was 4% (95% confidence interval 2% to 6%). For patients younger than 40 years, ECG testing had a diagnostic yield of 0% (95% confidence interval 0% to 3%) and was associated with a 10% frequency of abnormal findings.

Conclusion

ECG testing in patients younger than 40 years did not reveal a cardiac cause of syncope and was associated with a significant frequency of abnormal ECG findings unrelated to syncope. Although our findings should be verified in larger studies, it may be reasonable to defer ECG testing in younger patients who have a presentation consistent with a benign cause of syncope.

Study objective

We externally validate the ability of the San Francisco Syncope Rule to accurately identify syncope patients who will experience a 7-day serious clinical event.

Methods

Patients who presented to a single academic emergency department (ED) between 8 am and 10 pm with syncope or near-syncope were prospectively enrolled. Treating physicians recorded the presence or absence of all San Francisco Syncope Rule risk factors. Patients were contacted by telephone at 14 days for a structured interview. A 3-physician panel, blinded to the San Francisco Syncope Rule score, reviewed ED medical records, hospital records, and telephone interview forms to identify predefined serious clinical events. The primary outcome was the ability of the San Francisco Syncope Rule to predict any 7-day serious clinical event. A secondary outcome was the ability of the San Francisco Syncope Rule to predict 7-day serious clinical events that were not identified during the initial ED evaluation.

Results

Of 592 eligible patients, 477 (81%) provided informed consent. Direct telephone contact or admission/outpatient records were successfully obtained for 463 (97%) patients. There were 56 (12%) patients who had a serious 7-day clinical event, including 16 (3%) who received a diagnosis after the initial ED evaluation. Sensitivity and specificity of the San Francisco Syncope Rule for the primary outcome were 89% (95% confidence interval [CI] 81% to 97%) and 42% (95% CI 37% to 48%), respectively, and 69% (95% CI 46% to 92%) and 42% (95% CI 37% to 48%), respectively, for the secondary outcome. Estimates of sensitivity were minimally affected by missing data and most optimistic assumptions for missing follow-up information.

Conclusion

In this external validation cohort, the San Francisco Syncope Rule had a lower sensitivity and specificity than in previous reports.

Study objective

Hospitalizations that occur shortly after emergency department (ED) discharge may reveal opportunities to improve ED or follow-up care. There currently is limited, population-level information about such events. We identify hospital- and visit-level predictors of bounce-back admissions, defined as 7-day unscheduled hospital admissions after ED discharge.

Methods

Using the California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development files, we conducted a retrospective cohort analysis of adult (aged >18 years) ED visits resulting in discharge in 2007. Candidate predictors included index hospital structural characteristics such as ownership, teaching affiliation, trauma status, and index ED size, along with index visit patient characteristics of demographic information, day of service, against medical advice or eloped disposition, insurance, and ED primary discharge diagnosis. We fit a multivariable, hierarchic logistic regression to account for clustering of ED visits by hospitals.

Results

The study cohort contained a total of 5,035,833 visits to 288 facilities in 2007. Bounce-back admission within 7 days occurred in 130,526 (2.6%) visits and was associated with Medicaid (odds ratio [OR] 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.40 to 1.45) or Medicare insurance (OR 1.53; 95% CI 1.50 to 1.55) and a disposition of leaving against medical advice or before the evaluation was complete (OR 1.90; 95% CI 1.89 to 2.0). The 3 most common age-adjusted index ED discharge diagnoses associated with a bounce-back admission were chronic renal disease, not end stage (OR 3.3; 95% CI 2.8 to 3.8), end-stage renal disease (OR 2.9; 95% CI 2.4 to 3.6), and congestive heart failure (OR 2.5; 95% CI 2.3 to 2.6). Hospital characteristics associated with a higher bounce-back admission rate were for-profit status (OR 1.2; 95% CI 1.1 to 1.3) and teaching affiliation (OR 1.2; 95% CI 1.0 to 1.3).

Conclusion

We found 2.6% of discharged patients from California EDs to have a bounce-back admission within 7 days. We identified vulnerable populations, such as the very old and the use of Medicaid insurance, and chronic or end-stage renal disease as being especially at risk. Our findings suggest that quality improvement efforts focus on high-risk individuals and that the disposition plan of patients consider vulnerable populations.

Study objective

Emergency department (ED) crowding is a prevalent health delivery problem and may adversely affect the outcomes of patients requiring admission. We assess the association of ED crowding with subsequent outcomes in a general population of hospitalized patients.

Methods

We performed a retrospective cohort analysis of patients admitted in 2007 through the EDs of nonfederal, acute care hospitals in California. The primary outcome was inpatient mortality. Secondary outcomes included hospital length of stay and costs. ED crowding was established by the proxy measure of ambulance diversion hours on the day of admission. To control for hospital-level confounders of ambulance diversion, we defined periods of high ED crowding as those days within the top quartile of diversion hours for a specific facility. Hierarchic regression models controlled for demographics, time variables, patient comorbidities, primary diagnosis, and hospital fixed effects. We used bootstrap sampling to estimate excess outcomes attributable to ED crowding.

Results

We studied 995,379 ED visits resulting in admission to 187 hospitals. Patients who were admitted on days with high ED crowding experienced 5% greater odds of inpatient death (95% confidence interval [CI] 2% to 8%), 0.8% longer hospital length of stay (95% CI 0.5% to 1%), and 1% increased costs per admission (95% CI 0.7% to 2%). Excess outcomes attributable to periods of high ED crowding included 300 inpatient deaths (95% CI 200 to 500 inpatient deaths), 6,200 hospital days (95% CI 2,800 to 8,900 hospital days), and $17 million (95% CI $11 to $23 million) in costs.

Conclusion

Periods of high ED crowding were associated with increased inpatient mortality and modest increases in length of stay and costs for admitted patients.