Critical care in the emergency department

Impact of Delayed Transfer of Critically Ill Stroke Patients from the Emergency Department to the Neuro-ICU

“…Boarding of critically ill patients in the ED due to lack of immediate ICU bed availability is recognized as a growing problem in our health care system [1,11] that could impact on the outcome of critically ill neurological patients as well. The transition of care from the ED to a specialized critical care setting has not been well studied in critically ill stroke patients.…”

Quantifying Off-hour Emergency Physician Coverage of In-hospital Codes: A Survey of Community Emergency Departments

“…Although this report by Svenson et al reflects the experience of an institution with a volume more similar to that surveyed in this study, a teaching facility is inherently different from a community institution with respect to resources available, consultative services, and medical, emergency medicine, or surgical residents. Additionally, reports of critical care performed in the ED have primarily been at larger, academic tertiary centers and have corroborated each other by demonstrating a high-level commitment to the care of critically ill patients across these institutions (1,5,6). As a direct result, it is difficult to discern the specific critical care burden experienced specifically at the community hospital level.…”

“…Emergency department (ED) visits and ED length of stay continue to rise in the face of declining numbers of EDs (2)(3)(4). There is ample literature to support the idea that emergency physicians (EPs) in large tertiary centers provide a significant volume of critical care and that critical care training of EPs is valuable and necessary (5,6).…”

Mechanical ventilation in the emergency department for 24 hours or longer is associated with delayed weaning

“…The need for critical care in the emergency department (ED) is growing, representing a significant portion of ED processes [1][2][3][4][5]. Vulnerable and unstable, most critical care patients can easily be affected by the dynamic and fastchanging environment of the ED.…”