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Background: Delays in patient transfers are associated with worse outcomes for some neurosurgical conditions. One of the primary causes of transfer delay is lack of neurosurgery intensive care unit bed availability. In the present study, we characterize the results of implementing an interhospital transfer protocol to reduce unnecessary transfers and improve bed availability., Methods: A transfer protocol was implemented in July 2012 at the Bellevue Hospital Department of Neurosurgery that screened for and prevented transfer of low-risk patients who were unlikely to require specialized inpatient neurosurgical care. The impact of this protocol was assessed with prospectively recorded data on all potential interhospital transfers from May 2011 through June 2016., Results: Of the 1978 calls (regarding 1886 individual patients), 402 occurred before the implementation of the transfer protocol and 1576 occurred after. Before the protocol, 84.1% of transfer requests were accepted, but 15.2% were subsequently denied for bed unavailability. After the protocol, a smaller share of transfer requests were accepted after protocol screening (71.8%, P < 0.001), but only 1.9% (P < 0.001) were subsequently denied because of bed unavailability. The diagnosis demographics changed significantly (P < 0.001), with a larger share of arriving transfers suffering from aneurysms or tumors after the protocol and a smaller share suffering from stenosis/disc disease without neurological symptoms., Conclusions: The transfer protocol implemented in the present study allowed transfer determination based on the need for specialized neurosurgical care rather than chance unavailability of beds. Developing interhospital transfer protocols may be an effective strategy to efficiently allocate limited hospital resources and improve transfer systems., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To test the efficacy of an electronic asthma monitoring system (AMS) to reduce pediatric emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations for asthma., Study Design: Randomized clinical trial., Methods: Families of pediatric patients with asthma aged 8 to 17 years were recruited at 6 medical centers. Children were randomly assigned to the American Medical Alert Corporation pediatric AMS or a paper diary. The numbers of and costs associated with ED visits and hospitalizations for the 2 groups in the year following randomization were compared using t tests of statistical significance., Results: Of 59 children recruited to the trial, 29 were randomized to the AMS and 30 to the diary. The 2 groups were similar in demographic and clinical characteristics. During their study year, 24 AMS group members logged on a mean (SD) of 211.0 (117.3) days; 13 diary group members provided data on a mean (SD) of 136.6 (128.0) days. During the 32 months that the study was in progress, the case managers logged on a mean (SD) of 171.0 (97.2) days. Overall, 35 children had at least 1 ED visit, but only 7 children were hospitalized. The 2 groups had no statistically significant differences in the numbers of or charges associated with ED visits or hospitalizations., Conclusion: Electronic devices are being developed to make chronic disease management easier for patients and their families, but they should not be adopted without careful study, including randomized trials, to ascertain their use, costs, and benefits.