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Objective: Develop and validate a risk score using variables available during an Emergency Department (ED) encounter to predict adverse events among patients with suspected COVID-19., Methods: A retrospective cohort study of adult visits for suspected COVID-19 between March 1 - April 30, 2020 at 15 EDs in Southern California. The primary outcomes were death or respiratory decompensation within 7-days. We used least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) models and logistic regression to derive a risk score. We report metrics for derivation and validation cohorts, and subgroups with pneumonia or COVID-19 diagnoses., Results: 26,600 ED encounters were included and 1079 experienced an adverse event. Five categories (comorbidities, obesity/BMI ≥ 40, vital signs, age and sex) were included in the final score. The area under the curve (AUC) in the derivation cohort was 0.891 (95% CI, 0.880-0.901); similar performance was observed in the validation cohort (AUC = 0.895, 95% CI, 0.874-0.916). Sensitivity ranging from 100% (Score 0) to 41.7% (Score of ≥15) and specificity from 13.9% (score 0) to 96.8% (score ≥ 15). In the subgroups with pneumonia (n = 3252) the AUCs were 0.780 (derivation, 95% CI 0.759-0.801) and 0.832 (validation, 95% CI 0.794-0.870), while for COVID-19 diagnoses (n = 2059) the AUCs were 0.867 (95% CI 0.843-0.892) and 0.837 (95% CI 0.774-0.899) respectively., Conclusion: Physicians evaluating ED patients with pneumonia, COVID-19, or symptoms suspicious for COVID-19 can apply the COVAS score to assist with decisions to hospitalize or discharge patients during the SARS CoV-2 pandemic., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: Evidence suggests that exposure to opioids in adolescence increases risk of future opioid use. We evaluate if exposure to high versus low intensity opioid prescribers in the Emergency Department (ED) influences the risk of future opioid use in adolescents., Methods: Retrospective study of opioid-naïve patients 10 to 17 years seen in one of 14 EDs between January 2013 and December 2014. We categorized ED providers into quartiles according to the proportion of encounters resulting in opioid prescriptions. Primary outcome was use of opioids in the subsequent 12 months. Analysis adjusted for patient characteristics and compared future use of opioids for patients seen by the lowest versus the highest prescribing quartiles., Results: We included 9,688 patient encounters evaluated by the lowest opioid prescribing physician quartile versus 9,467 in the highest. The highest quartile gave opioid prescriptions to 14.9% of their patients compared to 2.8% for the lowest quartile. No association with future opioid use was found for patients evaluated by low versus high prescriber quartiles (OR 0.99, 95% CI 0.90-1.08). Patients with increasing age (OR 2.15, 95% CI 1.92-2.42) and white versus Hispanic ethnicity (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.33-1.80) were associated with recurrent opioid use., Conclusion: We found no association between high intensity opioid prescribers and recurrent 12 month use of opioids in opioid-naïve adolescents seen in the ED. This likely reflects various factors that put adolescents at risk for recurrent opioid use and may indicate the importance of the second prescription from primary care after initial exposure to opioids., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest All authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Adolescents and young adults are at high risk for opioid misuse and abuse. The emergency department (ED) plays a key role in treatment of acute and chronic pain and is a primary place that this patient population is exposed to prescription opioids. We evaluate the effect of patient age on use of opioids for adolescents and young adults in community EDs., Methods: Retrospective cohort study of adolescent and young adult encounters in 14 community EDs from 2013 to 2014. We evaluate the percent of ED encounters with parenteral and/or oral opioids administered, morphine milligram equivalents per ED patient encounter, and percent of patient encounters discharged with an opioid prescription. Age was the main exposure. The association between outcomes and age was examined using bivariate and multivariate logistic regression adjusting for measurable confounders., Results: There were 259,632 adolescent and young adult encounters in our sample, average age 17.6 years, with 15.8% given opioids. Increasing patient age was associated with a significant increase in the percent of encounters with opioids given (AOR, 1.11; 95% CI 1.10-1.11), morphine milligram equivalents administered (β 0.38; 95% CI 0.33-0.43 for parenteral and β 0.26; 95% CI 0.23-0.28 for oral), and percent of patients receiving outpatient prescriptions (AOR, 1.14; 95% CI 1.13-1.14). Significant variability also existed between medical centers (AOR, 2.02; 95% CI 1.86-2.20)., Conclusion: For adolescent and young adult patients in the ED, there is a significant association between opioid prescribing and increasing age. This describes an opportunity to reduce opioid use in older adolescents and young adults., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Primary Objective: The primary objective of the study is to determine if the mortality for adult patients visiting US emergency departments (EDs) is greater on weekends than weekdays., Secondary Objectives: The secondary objective of the study is to examine whether patient factors (diagnosis, income, insurance status) or hospital characteristics (ownership, ED volume, teaching status) are associated with increased weekend mortality., Methods: We used a retrospective cohort analysis of the 2008 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample. Evaluating 4225973 adults admitted through the ED to the hospital, signifying a 20% representative sample of US ED admissions. Logistic regression was used to examine associations of weekend mortality with patient and hospital characteristics, accounting for clustering by hospital., Results: Emergency department patients admitted to the hospital on the weekend are significantly more likely to die than those admitted on weekdays (odds ratio, 1.073; 95% confidence interval, 1.061-1.084). A significant weekend effect persisted after controlling for patient characteristics (odds ratio, 1.026; 95% confidence interval, 1.005-1.048). The top 10 primary diagnoses for patients dying did not identify any specific medical condition that explained the higher weekend admission mortality. The weekend effect was also relatively consistent across patient income, insurance status, hospital ownership, ED volume, and hospital teaching status., Conclusion: Patients are more likely to die when admitted through the ED on the weekend. We were unable to identify specific circumstances or hospital attributes that help explain this phenomenon. Although the relative increased risk per case is small, our study demonstrates a significant number of potentially preventable weekend deaths occurring annually in the United States., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)