What Clinicians Think About When They Think About Sepsis: Results From a Survey Across the University of Maryland Medical System.

Importance: Sepsis, a leading cause of death in the hospital, is a heterogeneous syndrome without a defined or specific set of symptoms.

Objectives: We conducted a survey of clinicians in practice to understand which clinical findings they tend to associate with sepsis.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A survey was distributed to physicians and advanced practice providers across a multihospital health system during April 2022 and May 2022 querying likelihood of suspecting sepsis and initiating sepsis care in response to various normal and abnormal clinical findings.

Home Pulse Oximetry Monitoring during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Assessment of Patient Engagement and Compliance.

Objectives: Patients with suspected COVID-19 remain at risk for clinical deterioration after discharge and may benefit from home oxygen saturation (SpO) monitoring using portable pulse oximeter devices. Our study aims to evaluate patient engagement and compliance with a home SpO monitoring program.

Methods: This is a single center, prospective pilot study of patients being discharged from the ED or urgent care after evaluation of symptoms consistent with COVID-19.

Overcoming stagnant flow: A scoping review of vertical movement in the emergency department.

Objectives: Improving emergency department (ED) patient flow has plagued many hospitals worldwide. "Vertical" flow improves throughput by maximizing use of chairs and waiting areas instead of beds. This process, however, is inconsistently described in the literature.

Clinical outcomes and echocardiographic characteristics between African American and Caucasian patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Background: Despite socioeconomic disparities, no association between clinical presentation and poor outcomes explains a higher mortality in African Americans with pulmonary embolism (PE). The objective is to identify the co-morbidities and echocardiographic characteristics associated with increased mortality in African American patients.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional study of Caucasian or African American patients with PE diagnosed between October 2015 and December 2017 at University of Maryland Medical Center.

Two pulmonary emboli in a psych pod.

Background: A female patient known to have schizoaffective disorder self-presented to an emergency department in a state of acute agitation and paranoia shortly after a 35-day inpatient stay at a psychiatric facility.

Case Report: The patient exhibited no signs or complaints of dyspnea or hypoxia, but later collapsed and became hypoxic after sleeping comfortably with sedation for 12 h in the psychiatric unit. She was intubated and a computed tomography angiogram revealed bilateral lobar pulmonary emboli and right heart strain.

Intractable Nausea Due to the Area Postrema Syndrome of Neuromyelitis Optica: An Uncommon Cause of a Common Symptom.

Background: Nausea and vomiting are common emergency department (ED) complaints. Neuromyelitis optica, a demyelinating disorder, has a predilection for the area postrema, the central nausea and vomiting center. Demyelinating lesions in this region cause intractable nausea and vomiting.