National Trends in Vital Sign Abnormalities at Arrival to the Emergency Department

Introduction: Recent reports suggest rising intensity of emergency department (ED) billing practices, sparking concerns that this may represent up-coding. However, it may reflect increasing severity and complexity of care in the ED population. We hypothesize that this in part may be reflected in more severe manifestations of illness as indicated by vital sign abnormalities.Methods: Using 18 years of data from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, we conducted a retrospective secondary analysis of adults (>18 years). We assessed standard vital signs using weighted descriptive statistics (heart rate, oxygen saturation, temperature, and systolic blood pressure [SBP]), as well as hypotension and tachycardia. Finally, we evaluated for differing effects stratifying by subpopulations of interest, including age (<65 vs ≥65), payer type, arrival by ambulance, and high-risk diagnoses.Results: In total there were 418,849 observations representing 1,745,368,303...
Source: Western Journal of Emergency Medicine - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Source Type: research