Clinical presentation of inhalational anthrax following bioterrorism exposure: report of 2 surviving patients.

The use of anthrax as a weapon of biological terrorism has moved from theory to reality in recent weeks. Following processing of a letter containing anthrax spores that had been mailed to a US senator, 5 cases of inhalational anthrax have occurred among postal workers employed at a major postal facility in Washington, DC. This report details the clinical presentation, diagnostic workup, and initial therapy of 2 of these patients. The clinical course is in some ways different from what has been described as the classic pattern for inhalational anthrax. One patient developed low-grade fever, chills, cough, and malaise 3 days prior to admission, and then progressive dyspnea and cough productive of blood-tinged sputum on the day of admission. The other patient developed progressively worsening headache of 3 days' duration, along with nausea, chills, and night sweats, but no respiratory symptoms, on the day of admission. Both patients had abnormal findings on chest radiographs. Non-contrast-enhanced computed tomography of the chest showing mediastinal adenopathy led to a presumptive diagnosis of inhalational anthrax in both cases. The diagnoses were confirmed by blood cultures and polymerase chain reaction testing. Treatment with antibiotics, including intravenous ciprofloxacin, rifampin, and clindamycin, and supportive therapy appears to have slowed the progression of inhalational anthrax and has resulted to date in survival.

Emergency department patient satisfaction: customer service training improves patient satisfaction and ratings of physician and nurse skill.

Customer service initiatives in healthcare have become a popular way of attempting to improve patient satisfaction. This study investigates the effect of clinically focused customer service training on patient satisfaction in the setting of a 62,000-visit emergency department and level I trauma center. Analysis of patient complaints, patient compliments, and a statistically verified patient-satisfaction survey indicate that (1) all 14 key quality characteristics identified in the survey increased dramatically in the study period; (2) patient complaints decreased by over 70 percent from 2.6 per 1,000 emergency department (ED) visits to 0.6 per 1,000 ED visits following customer service training; and (3) patient compliments increased more than 100 percent from 1.1 per 1,000 ED visits to 2.3 per 1,000 ED visits. The most dramatic improvement in the patient satisfaction survey came in ratings of skill of the emergency physician, likelihood of returning, skill of the emergency department nurse, and overall satisfaction. These results show that clinically focused customer service training improves patient satisfaction and ratings of physician and nurse skill. They also suggest that such training may offer a substantial competitive market advantage, as well as improve the patients' perception of quality and outcome.

Are they patients or customers?

Imagine you could reduce complaints in your institution from 2.5 to .5 per 1,000 patient encounters, while simultaneously increasing patient compliments from .5 to 5.1 per 1,000 patients. Imagine that you could have 10 times as many delighted customers as complainers. In fact, that's what happened at Inova Fairfax Hospital's Department of Emergency Medicine, Falls Church, VA.

Future legal issues in emergency medicine.

This article analyzes past legal trends in emergency medicine with an effort to project those trends and current developments into future legal issues that will confront emergency physicians and emergency departments. Special emphasis is placed on insurance trends and professional liability insurance developments along with medical malpractice claims past, present, and future. Also discussed in this article is the health care industry environment and ways that it might affect future legal challenges for emergency medicine.

Industrial models of continuous quality improvement. Implications for emergency medicine.

CQI or TQM programs were developed from industrial models dating back to the 1930s. The original philosophic underpinnings guiding CQI included SPC, in which rigorous statistical methods were used to study industrial flow processes. As originally adopted by the Japanese, CQI is credited, to a significant degree, with the emergence of the Japanese economy as a major world leader. Nonetheless, the original CQI concepts were developed and implemented by American researchers, including Deming and Juran. The application of industrial models of quality improvement to service businesses in general and the health care industry in particular have met with substantial success in a number of different settings. Far from representing a management fad, CQI represents a solid management philosophy with a strong statistical background that stands in sharp contrast to traditional management in this country. CQI recognizes that the majority of defects result from a failure of the processes through which the product or service is generated, as opposed to the workers themselves. To a significant degree, CQI empowers service providers (through the strong commitment of top management) to participate in improving the processes through which products and services are delivered. As efforts unfold to contain health care costs and maintain quality in the face of declining resources, CQI programs are likely to be essential to success. Nonetheless, adopting CQI requires a significant commitment on the part of top management to the training and retraining of health care providers and the recognition that traditional management philosophies and techniques have largely failed to produce the quantum leaps in quality that will be required in the coming years.

Marketing and public relations in the emergency department.

This article outlines the elements of successful ED marketing, as well as providing definitions for terms used within the marketing process. In today's competition and rapidly changing environment, marketing and public relations are tools that every ED Medical Director may want to consider. Because the marketing process requires a great deal of time and effort, as well as a high degree of intellectual honesty, it should never be entered into without a strong commitment. However, marketing the ED can be among the most productive, stimulating, and gratifying experiences for the ED Medical Director, the emergency department physicians, and all ED service personnel.

The emergency department medical director.

This article has presented an overview of the duties, responsibilities, and management roles of the emergency department Medical Director, a position that can be among the most challenging, stimulating, and exciting in medicine. However, prior to accepting a position as an Emergency Department medical director, one should have a clear understanding of what the job entails. Careful discussions with the hospital administration, medical staff, nursing personnel, and staff emergency physicians should be undertaken to learn the perceptions of these people and expectations of the position. Once the job has been accepted, using the roles, responsibilities, and duties detailed herein may be of benefit--but should always be applied with good judgment, tactful cooperation, and common sense. Finally, it should not be surprising to a medical director to find, as Spinoza did many years ago, that the excellent thing he aspires to are as difficult as they are rare.

Pediatric head injury: the critical role of the emergency physician.

Neurologic injury is a significant source of morbidity and mortality in pediatric patients. In order to clarify the factors influencing outcome in pediatric patients with severe head injury, we studied 200 consecutive patients with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores of 8 or less. The following data were collected: age, GCS score, presence of mass lesions, oculovestibular reflexes (OVR), pupillary size and reactivity, intracranial pressure (ICP), apnea, presence of hypotension, hypoxia (PO2 less than 60 torr), or hypercarbia (PCO2 greater than or equal to 35 torr), presence of multiple trauma, and Modified Injury Severity Scale (MISS) score. Outcome was assessed by the Glasgow Outcome Scale at a minimum of six months following recovery. Of the 200 patients in the study, 86 (43%) had isolated head injury (IHI) and 114 (57%) had head injury plus multiple trauma (HI + MT). Overall, 26% of patients had mass lesions; 28% had altered OVR; 33% had fixed, dilated pupils; 79% had increased intracranial pressure; and 29% had hypotension, hypoxia, or hypercarbia. Overall mortality was 21.5%. Severity of injury (as judged by presence of mass lesions, GCS, OVR, fixed pupils) was more pronounced in patients with IHI, although increased ICP was more common in patients with HI + MT; however, death was almost three times more common in patients with HI + MT (30% versus 10.5%). In the IHI group, two of nine patients who died (22%) had hypotension, hypoxia, or hypercarbia; all but four patients (88%) in the HI + MT group had hypotension, hypoxia, or hypercarbia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Severity of illness and injury in pediatric air transport.

To assess severity of illness or injury in pediatric patients undergoing air transport, we prospectively evaluated 636 patients during 29 months of service. All patients were classified by age, diagnosis, and method and distance of transport. Therapeutic intervention scoring system (TISS) scores were calculated in all patients, Glasgow coma scale (GCS) scores were used in patients with altered level of consciousness, and Modified Injury Severity Scale (MISS) scores were used in patients with multiple trauma. A total of 57.5% of patients were transported by helicopter, 37.5% by fixed-wing aircraft, and 5% by ground transport. Mean distance of transport was 207 miles. Age ranged from 3 weeks to 16 years, with 45% of children under 1 year of age. Trauma (24.6%), neurologic disease (24.2%), and respiratory failure (20%) were the most common diagnoses. Eighty-one percent of patients were taken to surgery or admitted to the intensive care unit immediately on arrival at the regional children's hospital. Mean TISS score was 36.7, with 51% of patients having TISS scores greater than 30. The mean MISS score was 34.5, and 75% of patients had MISS scores greater than 25. Nineteen percent of patients had GCS scores less than or equal to 8. Overall mortality was 7%, with 9% mortality in patients with trauma versus 6.3% in nontraumatic diseases. TISS scores greater than 30, MISS scores greater than 25, and GCS scores less than or equal to 8 were associated with increased mortality (P less than .01).