Clinical Research Directory

Prognostic Factors of Hospitalization for Patients Aged 75 and Over in Emergency Department in France - Monocentric Retrospective Cohort Study

A geriatric patient is defined as a patient aged 75 and over who meets certain medical or social vulnerability criteria and is characterised by coexisting physical and/or psychological dependence. The proportion of patients with a geriatric profile in the general population is growing. The average time spent in the emergency department by the elderly population is about 3 hours longer than for patients under 75 years old in France, which is associated with the risk of decompensation of chronic conditions, confusion, falls or agitation. An overnight stay in the emergency department for these patients increases the risk of mortality and the length of hospital stay. Several prognostic scores for hospitalization have been studied in adult populations. The most widely used scores are the Sydney Triage to Admission Risk Tool (START), the Ambulatory (AMB) and the Glasgow Admission Prediction Score (GAPS). Studies have compared these three scores and demonstrated the greater robustness of GAPS. The CalcuLation of the Elderly Admission Risk in the Emergency Department (CLEARED) tool, developed for the elderly population, has lower performance than GAPS. A systematic review of the literature studied the power of GAPS for the geriatric population and highlighted the need for validation in the target population. No validated hospitalization prognostic score was found in France for this population. The research hypothesis is that GAPS would detect hight probability of admission at the time of triage for the patients aged 75 and over in emergency department in France. The primary objective of this monocentric study is to evaluate the prognostic performance of GAPS for the target population (on the group 1). The secondary objectives consist of developing and internally validating a new score (PROFACTHOS) (on the group 2), then performing a temporal validation of PROFACTHOS with comparison to the GAPS (on the group 1), and finally to determine the threshold for classifying patients with a high probability of hospitalization for the score with the strongest discriminatory performance among GAPS or PROFACTHOS. Group 1: Patients aged 75 and over admitted to emergency department from 10/01/2024 to 09/30/2025. Group 2 : Patients aged 75 and over admitted to emergency department from 10/01/2022 to 09/30/2023

SurgeCon: An Emergency Department Surge Management Platform

Wait times and overcrowding are challenging emergency departments (EDs) around the world. Several countries with advanced healthcare systems cannot keep pace with patient demand, and Canada ranks among the longest wait times compared to peer-industrialized countries. In fact, the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) identified an 11% increase in ED wait times from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017. This translates to long wait times that deter patients from pursuing necessary care and increases their likelihood of leaving without being seen by an ED physician. In Newfoundland and Labrador (NL), this issue has precipitated strikingly serious situations regarding long wait times that have made the province a case-in-point for ED issues. To counter this, the investigators propose an innovative quality-improvement intervention called SurgeCon that includes a protocol-driven software platform and several other initiatives to reduce wait times and improve the sustainability of health systems without significant workforce changes. The investigators piloted SurgeCon at the ED in Carbonear, Newfoundland and Labrador (NL) and found there was a 32% reduction in ED wait time.

Mild TBI in the Emergency Department

Mild TBI is one of the main causes of admission to the Emergency Department (ED). Brain computed tomography (CT) is one of the most widely used diagnostic tools to assess the presence of intracranial lesions. However, in Western countries, 85-95% of CT scans performed in the ED for mild TBI are negative. It is therefore conceivable that a significant number of CTs could be avoided by a more careful use of this exam. On the other hand, excessive use of CT exposes patients to unnecessary radiation, increases healthcare costs and slows down the management of patients in the ED. This study aims to analyze the variability in the use of CT in mild TBI in Italian EDs, validate the scores designed to help the physician decide when to use it and develop a model that predicts the medium-term outcome of patients with mild head trauma.

Monocyte Distribution Width (MDW) in the General Population of Emergency Department Patients With and Without Bacteremia

This project will evaluate the usefulness of Monocyte Distribution Width (MDW) for the diagnosis of blood culture positivity (BSI) in patients in the Emergency Department (ED) and reevaluate the usefulness of MDW in patients with BSI and sepsis. Consequently, if MDW indicate a high likelihood of bacteremia antibiotic management in patients with suspected bacterial infections will be changed and aid appropriate antibiotic administration.

Evaluation of the Quality of Care in the Emergency Department by Studying the Appropriateness of Admissions of Patients Accessing the Emergency Department (ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII)

The aim of this study is to develop, study and validate a rigorous and sustainable method for assessing the clinical appropriateness of the decision taken in the Emergency Department to admit or not to admit patients.