Physician-directed smoking cessation using patient "opt-out" approach in the emergency department: A pilot program.

OBJECTIVE: Using a physician-directed, patient "opt-out" approach to prescriptive smoking cessation in the emergency department (ED) setting, we set out to describe patient actions as they related to smoking cessation behaviors. METHODS: A convenience sample of smokers at 2 Pennsylvania hospital EDs who met inclusion/exclusion criteria were approached to participate in a brief intervention known as screening, treatment initiation, and referral (STIR) counseling that included phone follow-up. Demographic information, current smoking status, and specific physician prescription and follow-up recommendations were collected. Approximately 3 months later, patients were contacted to determine current smoking status and actions taken since their ED visit. RESULTS: One hundred six patients were approached and 7 (6.6%) opted out of the intervention. Patients who did not opt out were evaluated for appropriate use of smoking cessation-related medications; 35 (35.4%) opted out of the prescription(s) and 6 (6.1%) were not indicated. Twenty-one (21.2%) patients opted out of ambulatory referral follow-ups with primary care and/or tobacco treatment program; one (1.0%) was not indicated for referral. Nineteen (32.8%) patients who received prescription(s) for smoking cessation-related medications initially also followed the prescription(s). Seventeen (22.1%) patients participated in referral follow-up. CONCLUSION: In this small ED pilot, using the STIR concepts in an opt-out method, few smokers opted out of the smoking cessation intervention. About one-third of the patients declined prescriptions for smoking cessation-related medications and less than one-quarter declined ambulatory referrals for follow-up. These findings support a willingness of patients to participate in STIR and the benefits of intervention in this setting.

Complication of otitis media leads to opisthotonos in a toddler.

Opisthotonos, extreme involuntary neck and back extension, is rarely seen in modern emergency departments. Vaccines have prevented the most common causes of this clinical presentation. Alternatively, otitis media is one of the most common pediatric infections and is characteristically non-invasive and harmless. In exceedingly rare cases, otitis media can develop complications and progress to invasive pneumococcal diseases including mastoiditis and meningitis. Streptococcus pneumoniae accounts for the majority of otitis media infections, however, since the introduction of the 7-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) otitis media and its complications have decreased significantly. The present case reports of a previously healthy and immunized child presenting to a pediatric emergency department (PED) with opisthotonos, and was found to have pneumococcal meningitis, bacteremia and mastoiditis arising from otitis media.