Real-Time Patient Portal Use Among Emergency Department Patients: An Open Results Study.

OBJECTIVES: We characterized real-time patient portal test result viewing among emergency department (ED) patients and described patient characteristics overall and among those not enrolled in the portal at ED arrival. METHODS: Our observational study at an academic ED used portal log data to trend the proportion of adult patients who viewed results during their visit from May 04, 2021 to April 04, 2022. Correlation was assessed visually and with Kendall's τ. Covariate analysis using binary logistic regression assessed result(s) viewed as a function of time accounting for age, sex, ethnicity, race, language, insurance status, disposition, and social vulnerability index (SVI). A second model only included patients not enrolled in the portal at arrival. We used random forest imputation to account for missingness and Huber-White heteroskedasticity-robust standard errors for patients with multiple encounters (α = 0.05). RESULTS: There were 60,314 ED encounters (31,164 unique patients). In 7,377 (12.2%) encounters, patients viewed results while still in the ED. Patients were not enrolled for portal use at arrival in 21,158 (35.2%) encounters, and 927 (4.4% of not enrolled, 1.5% overall) subsequently enrolled and viewed results in the ED. Visual inspection suggests an increasing proportion of patients who viewed results from roughly 5 to 15% over the study (Kendall's τ = 0.61 [p <0.0001]). Overall and not-enrolled models yielded concordance indices (C) of 0.68 and 0.72, respectively, with significant overall likelihood ratio χ 2 (p <0.0001). Time was independently associated with viewing results in both models after adjustment. Models revealed disparate use between age, race, ethnicity, SVI, sex, insurance status, and disposition groups. CONCLUSION: We observed increased portal-based test result viewing among ED patients over the year since the 21st Century Cures act went into effect, even among those not enrolled at arrival. We observed disparities in those who viewed results.

Perceptions of Signs of Addiction Among Opioid Naive Patients Prescribed Opioids in the Emergency Department.

OBJECTIVES: Patient knowledge deficits related to opioid risks, including lack of knowledge regarding addiction, are well documented. Our objective was to characterize patients' perceptions of signs of addiction. METHODS: This study utilized data obtained as part of a larger interventional trial. Consecutively discharged English-speaking patients, age >17 years, at an urban academic emergency department, with a new opioid prescription were enrolled from July 2015 to August 2017. During a follow-up phone interview 7 to 14 days after discharge, participants were asked a single question, "What are the signs of addiction to pain medicine?" Verbatim transcribed answers were analyzed using a directed content analysis approach and double coding. These codes were then grouped into themes. RESULTS: There were 325 respondents, 57% female, mean age 43.8 years, 70.1% privately insured. Ten de novo codes were added to the 11 DSM-V criteria codes. Six themes were identified: (1) effort spent acquiring opioids, (2) emotional and physical changes related to opioid use, (3) opioid use that is "not needed, (4) increasing opioid use, (5) an emotional relationship with opioids, and (6) the inability to stop opioid use. CONCLUSIONS: Signs of addiction identified by opioid naive patients were similar to concepts identified in medical definitions. However, participants' understanding also included misconceptions, omissions, and conflated misuse behaviors with signs of addiction. Identifying these differences will help inform patient-provider risk communication, providing an opportunity for counseling and prevention.

Pneumococcal Community-Acquired Pneumonia Detected by Serotype-Specific Urinary Antigen Detection Assays.

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae is considered the leading bacterial cause of pneumonia in adults. Yet, it was not commonly detected by traditional culture-based and conventional urinary testing in a recent multicenter etiology study of adults hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP). We used novel serotype-specific urinary antigen detection (SSUAD) assays to determine whether pneumococcal cases were missed by traditional testing. Methods: We studied adult patients hospitalized with CAP at 5 hospitals in Chicago and Nashville (2010-2012) and enrolled in the Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC) study. Traditional diagnostic testing included blood and sputum cultures and conventional urine antigen detection (ie, BinaxNOW). We applied SSUAD assays that target serotypes included in the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) to stored residual urine specimens. Results: Among 1736 patients with SSUAD and ≥1 traditional pneumococcal test performed, we identified 169 (9.7%) cases of pneumococcal CAP. Traditional tests identified 93 (5.4%) and SSUAD identified 76 (4.4%) additional cases. Among 14 PCV13-serotype cases identified by culture, SSUAD correctly identified the same serotype in all of them. Cases identified by SSUAD vs traditional tests were similar in most demographic and clinical characteristics, although disease severity and procalcitonin concentration were highest among those with positive blood cultures. The proportion of pneumonia cases caused by serotypes exclusively covered by PCV13 was not significantly different between the first and second July-June study periods (6.4% vs 4.0%). Conclusions: Although restricted to the detection of only 13 serotypes, SSUAD testing substantially increased the detection of pneumococcal pneumonia among adults hospitalized with CAP.

Temperature modulation with an esophageal heat transfer device - a pediatric swine model study.

BACKGROUND: An increasing number of conditions appear to benefit from control and modulation of temperature, but available techniques to control temperature often have limitations, particularly in smaller patients with high surface to mass ratios. We aimed to evaluate a new method of temperature modulation with an esophageal heat transfer device in a pediatric swine model, hypothesizing that clinically significant modulation in temperature (both increases and decreases of more than 1°C) would be possible. METHODS: Three female Yorkshire swine averaging 23 kg were anesthetized with inhalational isoflurane prior to placement of the esophageal device, which was powered by a commercially available heat exchanger. Swine temperature was measured rectally and cooling and warming were performed by selecting the appropriate external heat exchanger mode. Temperature was recorded over time in order to calculate rates of temperature change. Histopathology of esophageal tissue was performed after study completion. RESULTS: Average swine baseline temperature was 38.3°C. Swine #1 exhibited a cooling rate of 3.5°C/hr; however, passive cooling may have contributed to this rate. External warming blankets maintained thermal equilibrium in swine #2 and #3, demonstrating maximum temperature decrease of 1.7°C/hr. Warming rates averaged 0.29°C/hr. Histopathologic analysis of esophageal tissue showed no adverse effects. CONCLUSIONS: An esophageal heat transfer device successfully modulated the temperature in a pediatric swine model. This approach to temperature modulation may offer a useful new modality to control temperature in conditions warranting temperature management (such as maintenance of normothermia, induction of hypothermia, fever control, or malignant hyperthermia).