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BackgroundWhile there is significant research exploring adults' use of opioids, there has been minimal focus on the opioid impact within emergency departments for the pediatric population.MethodsWe examined data from the Agency for Healthcare Research, the National Emergency Department Sample (NEDS), and death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sociodemographic and financial variables were analyzed for encounters during 2014-2017 for patients under age 18, matching diagnoses codes for opioid-related overdose or opioid use disorder.ResultsDuring this period, 59,658 children presented to an ED for any diagnoses involving opioids. The majority (68.5%) of visits were related to overdoses (poisoning), with a mean age of 11.3 years and a majority female (53%). There was a curvilinear relationship between age and encounters, with teens representing the majority of visits, followed by infants. The highest volume was seen in the Southern U.S., with over 58% more opioid visits than the next highest region (Midwest). Charges exceeded USD 157 million, representing 2% of total ED costs, with Medicaid responsible for 54% of the total.ConclusionsWith increases in substance use among children, there is a growing need for pediatric emergency physicians to recognize, refer, and initiate treatments.

Introduction: Hurricanes have increased in severity over the past 35 years, and climate change has led to an increased frequency of catastrophic flooding. The impact of floods on emergency department (ED) operations and patient health has not been well studied. We sought to detail challenges and lessons learned from the severe weather event caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas, in August 2017.Methods: This report combines narrative data from interviews with retrospective data on patient volumes, mode of arrival, and ED lengths of stay (LOS). We compared the five-week peri-storm period for the 2017 hurricane to similar periods in 2015 and 2016.Results: For five days, flooding limited access to the hospital, with a consequent negative impact on provider staffing availability, disposition and transfer processes, and resource consumption. Interruption of patient transfer capabilities threatened patient safety, but flexibility of operations prevented poor outcomes. The total ED patient census for the study period decreased in 2017 (7062 patients) compared to 2015 (7665 patients) and 2016 (7770) patients). Over the five-week study period, the arrival-by-ambulance rate was 12.45% in 2017 compared to 10.1% in 2016 (p < 0.0001) and 13.7% in 2015 (p < 0.0001). The median ED length of stay (LOS) in minutes for admitted patients was 976 minutes in 2015 (p < 0.0001) compared to 723 minutes in 2016 and 591 in 2017 (p < 0.0001). For discharged patients, median ED LOS was 336 minutes in 2016 compared to 356 in 2015 (p < 0.0001) and 261 in 2017 (p < 0.0001). Median boarding time for admitted ED patients was 284 minutes in 2016 compared to 470 in 2015 (p < 0.0001) and 234.5 in 2017 (p < 0.001). Water damage resulted in a loss of 133 of 179 inpatient beds (74%). Rapid and dynamic ED process changes were made to share ED beds with admitted patients and to maximize transfers post-flooding to decrease ED boarding times.Conclusion: A number of pre-storm preparations could have allowed for smoother and safer ride-out functioning for both hospital personnel and patients. These measures include surplus provisioning of staff and supplies to account for limited facility access. During a disaster, innovative flexibility of both ED and hospital operations may be critical when disposition and transfer capibilities or bedding capacity are compromised.

Objective: Globally, rates of metabolic disorders continue to climb, leading to significant disease morbidity and mortality. Individuals with mental illness are particularly prone to obesity, and some medications, such as antipsychotics, may increase the risk for metabolic disorders. The American Psychiatric Association and the American Diabetes Association recommend that patients taking antipsychotic medications receive regular screening for metabolic disorders. This study examined hospital and community factors associated with screening these patients for such disorders. Methods: The authors combined Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hospital-level data on screening for metabolic disorders among patients with an antipsychotic prescription with community data, including urbanization classification, social vulnerability, and metabolic disease presence and risk factors. Data were merged at the county level and evaluated with a nonparametric multivariate regression model. Results: The CMS data set included 1,497 U.S. hospitals with data on screening for metabolic disorders among patients with an antipsychotic prescription. Screening rates varied by type of facility; acute care and critical access hospitals outperformed freestanding psychiatric facilities (p<0.001). No other variables examined in the multivariate model were associated with screening for metabolic disorders. Conclusions: Despite common resource limitations, screening for metabolic disorders may be driven more by logistics and less by time, finances, or a community's primary care network. Identifying the specific logistical challenges of freestanding psychiatric facilities could aid in the development of targeted interventions to improve the rates of screening for and treatment of not only metabolic disorders but also other common comorbid conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Computed tomography angiography (CTA) is used to screen patients for cerebrovascular injury after blunt trauma, but risk factors are not clearly defined in children. This modality has inherent radiation exposure. We set out to better delineate the risk factors associated with blunt cervical vascular injury (BCVI) in children with attention to the predictive value of seatbelt sign of the neck. Methods: We collected demographic, clinical and radiographic data from the electronic medical record and a trauma registry for patients less than age 18 years who underwent CTA of the neck in their evaluation at a Level I trauma center from November 2002 to December 2014 (12 years). The primary outcome was BCVI.   Results: We identified 11,446 pediatric blunt trauma patients of whom 375 (2.7%) underwent CTA imaging. Fifty-three patients (0.4%) were diagnosed with cerebrovascular injuries. The average age of patients was 12.6 years and included 66% males. Nearly half of the population was white (52%). Of those patients who received CTA, 53 (14%) were diagnosed with arterial injury of various grades (I-V). We created models to evaluate factors independently associated with BCVI. The independent predictors associated with BCVI were Injury Severity Score >/= 16 (odds ratio [OR] [2.35]; 95% confidence interval [CI] [1.11-4.99%]), infarct on head imaging (OR [3.85]; 95% CI [1.49-9.93%]), hanging mechanism (OR [8.71]; 95% CI [1.52-49.89%]), cervical spine fracture (OR [3.84]; 95% CI [1.94-7.61%]) and basilar skull fracture (OR [2.21]; 95% CI [1.13-4.36%]). The same independent predictors remained associated with BCVI when excluding hanging mechanism from the multivariate regression analysis. Seatbelt sign of the neck was not associated with BCVI (p=0.68).   Conclusion: We have found independent predictors of BCVI in pediatric patients. These may help in identifying children that may benefit from screening with CTA of the neck.

Abstract With improved outcome for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), treatment discontinuation has become increasingly attractive to patients. We analyzed the outcomes of patients who chose to discontinue TKI therapy regardless of their ongoing response. Thirty-five patients with chronic phase CML discontinued TKI in complete cytogenetic response. Of them, 51% discontinued due to adverse effects, 23% due to long complete molecular response (CMR) (> 5 years), 9% due to pregnancy and 17% due to financial problems. After TKI discontinuation, patients were followed for a median of 16 months. Among 27 patients (77%) who discontinued TKIs in CMR, 11 (41%) had a molecular relapse after a median of 3.5 months. In univariate analysis we observed that patients with ≥ 64 months of CMR before TKI discontinuation had superior cumulative proportions of sustained CMR and major molecular response (MMR) at 12 months after discontinuation: 88.9% vs. 45.5% (p = 0.02) and 100% vs. 75% (p = 0.05), respectively. Patients treated with high dose imatinib or second generation TKIs had a higher cumulative proportion of sustained MMR at 12 months after discontinuation than patients treated with standard dose imatinib: 100% vs. 72.2% (p = 0.03), respectively. Of the five patients who stopped TKI in MR(4.5) (molecular response of 4.5-log reduction) one lost cytogenetic response. All three patients who discontinued TKIs in MMR lost cytogenetic response; one progressed to accelerated phase. Thirteen patients (37%) restarted TKIs after loss of response: 11 improved their response, and for two it is too early to assess. Treatment discontinuation can lead to sustained CMR in some patients, but risk of relapse is higher if patients discontinue TKIs when not in CMR.

BackgroundIbrutinib, an orally administered covalent inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK), is an effective treatment for relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). We investigated the activity and safety of the combination of ibrutinib with the monoclonal antibody rituximab in patients with high-risk CLL.MethodsIn this single-arm phase 2 study, we enrolled adult patients with high-risk CLL at the MD Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, TX, USA). All enrolled participants had high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities (deletion 17p, TP53 mutation, or deletion 11q) or a short progression-free survival (PFS

Outcomes of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who are refractory to high-dose Cytarabine (HiDAC)-based induction are dismal. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT) as initial salvage may be effective and potentially superior to conventional salvage chemotherapy. Eighteen percent (285 of 1597) of AML patients were primary refractory to HiDAC-based regimens at the MD Anderson Cancer Center between 1995 and 2009. AHSCT was the initial salvage in 28 cases. These patients were compared against 149 patients who received salvage chemotherapy, but never received AHSCT. Patients receiving salvage chemotherapy were older, had higher bone marrow blasts percentage, and higher incidence of unfavorable cytogenetics (P

PURPOSE: To investigate the prognostic value of the Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation-Specific Comorbidity Index (HCT-CI) in patients who received transplantation admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). PATIENTS AND METHODS: We investigated the association of HCT-CI with inpatient mortality and overall survival (OS) among 377 patients who were admitted to the ICU within 100 days of allogeneic stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) at our institution. HCT-CI scores were collapsed into four groups and were evaluated in univariate and multivariate analyses using logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS: The most common pretransplantation comorbidities were pulmonary and cardiac diseases, and respiratory failure was the primary reason for ICU admission. We observed a strong trend for higher inpatient mortality and shorter OS among patients with HCT-CI values ≥ 2 compared with patients with values of 0 to 1 in all patient subsets studied. Multivariate analysis showed that patients with HCT-CI values ≥ 2 had significantly higher inpatient mortality than patients with values of 0 to 1 and that HCT-CI values ≥ 4 were significantly associated with shorter OS compared with values of 0 to 1 (hazard ratio, 1.74; 95% CI, 1.23 to 2.47). The factors associated with lower inpatient mortality were ICU admission during the ASCT conditioning phase or the use of reduced-intensity conditioning regimens. The overall inpatient mortality rate was 64%, and the 1-year OS rate was 15%. Among patients with HCT-CI scores of 0 to 1, 2, 3, and ≥ 4, the 1-year OS rates were 22%, 17%, 18%, and 9%, respectively. CONCLUSION: HCT-CI is a valuable predictor of mortality and survival in critically ill patients after ASCT.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted hospital operations. Anecdotal evidence suggests financial performance likewise suffered, yet little empirical research supports this claim. This study aimed to explore the impact of the pandemic on the financial performance of the most prominent academic hospitals in the United States. Data from the 115 largest major teaching hospitals in the United States were extracted from the American Hospital Directory for three years (2019–2021). We hypothesized that the year and region would moderate the relationship between a hospital's return on assets (financial performance) and specific operational variables. We found evidence through descriptive statistics and multivariate moderated regressions that financial positions rebounded in 2021, mainly through reductions in adjusted full-time employees and liabilities and an increase in non-operating income. Our results also found that the Midwest region significantly outperformed the other three regions, particularly in terms of lower salaries and operational expenses. These findings suggest potential for future initiatives encouraging efficiency and finding alternate sources of income beyond patient income. Hospitals should focus on improving financial reserves, building out non-operational revenue streams, and implementing operational efficiencies to foster better financial resiliency. These suggestions may enable healthcare administrators and facilities to adapt to future pandemics and environmental turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Data on direct non--health care and time costs are rarely collected, though the incorporation of such data is essential for performing cost-effectiveness analyses according to established guidelines. Objectives. To [...]

Background: Palliative care is insufficiently integrated in the continuum of care for older people. It is unclear to what extent healthcare policy for older people includes elements of palliative care and thus supports its integration. Aim: (1) To develop a reference framework for identifying palliative care contents in policy documents; (2) to determine inclusion of palliative care in public policy documents on healthcare for older people in 13 rapidly ageing countries. Design: Directed documentary analysis of public policy documents (legislation, policies/strategies, guidelines, white papers) on healthcare for older people. Using existing literature, we developed a reference framework and data extraction form assessing 10 criteria of palliative care inclusion. Country experts identified documents and extracted data. Setting: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, England, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain. Results: Of 139 identified documents, 50 met inclusion criteria. The most frequently addressed palliative care elements were coordination and continuity of care (12 countries), communication and care planning, care for family, and ethical and legal aspects (11 countries). Documents in 10 countries explicitly mentioned palliative care, nine addressed symptom management, eight mentioned end-of-life care, and five referred to existing palliative care strategies (out of nine that had them). Conclusions: Health care policies for older people need revising to include reference to end-of-life care and dying and ensure linkage to existing national or regional palliative care strategies. The strong policy focus on care coordination and continuity in policies for older people is an opportunity window for palliative care advocacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]