In medical patients admitted to a Model 2 hospital with chronic respiratory illness, the 'respiratory variables' of the NEWS score are poor discriminators of patients who are clinically deteriorating. Better tools (such as the CREWS score) are required to distinguish acutely ill from chronically ill patients with respiratory disease in Model 2 hospitals.

Introduction: Although most patients with rare diseases like sickle cell disease (SCD) are treated in the primary care setting, primary care physicians may find it challenging to keep abreast of medication improvements and complications associated with treatment for rare and complex diseases. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a clinical decision support (CDS)-based intervention system for transfusional iron overload in adults with SCD to improve management in primary care. Methods: An electronic medical record based clinical decision support system for potential transfusional iron overload in SCD patients in primary care was evaluated. The intervention was implemented in 3 family medicine clinics with a control group of 3 general internal medicine clinics. Data were collected in the 6 months before the intervention and 6 months after the intervention. There were 47 patients in the family medicine group and 24 in the general internal medicine group. Results: There was no management change in the control group while the intervention group improved primary care management from 0% to 44% (P < .001). Conclusion: A CDS tool can improve management of SCD patients in primary care. (J Am Board Fam Med 2018;31:812–816.)

Background: Increases in emergency department (ED) use are contributing to inefficient health care spending and becoming a public health concern. Previous studies have identified characteristics of ED high utilizers aimed at designing interventions to improve efficiency. We aim to expand on these findings in a family medicine outpatient population. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis on a population of ED high utilizers, defined as those who had been to the ED 6 or more times in 1 year, including medical and demographic characteristics from 2015 to 2017. Results: Compared with our source population, ED high utilizers were most commonly female, African American, or single and insured by Medicare or Medicaid. They did not have a chronic pain or substance use diagnosis, but more than half had a psychiatric condition. The only demographic characteristic that changed over time was home location from 2015 to 2017 (P < .05). Less than 10% of ED high utilizers were the same over 3 years. Conclusions: Most demographic characteristics did not change over time, whereas individuals did change. Interventions aimed at improving efficiency of ED use should be geared toward unchanging characteristics rather than individuals. The only demographic characteristic that did change significantly was home location that correlated in time with the availability of new EDs providing support for a theory of supply-sensitive ED use.