Referral patterns to a pediatric orthopedic clinic: implications for education and practice.

Objective: Musculoskeletal medicine is becoming an increasingly essential part of primary care medicine. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Surgical Advisory Panel recently published voluntary guidelines to establish diagnoses that should be referred to a pediatric specialist rather than a general specialist (pediatric orthopedic surgery vs general orthopedic surgery). Given the crisis in pediatric orthopedic surgery manpower and resources, we believe that these guidelines are useful in defining appropriate referrals.

The effect of a new emergency medicine residency program on patient length of stay in a community hospital emergency department.

Objectives: It is not clear how emergency medicine residents affect emergency department (ED) efficiency. The objective of this study was to determine whether a new emergency medicine residency program affected the length of stay (LOS) of patients in a community hospital ED.

Methods: A before-and-after observational study was conducted during a one-year period prior to, and for three years after, the start of a new residency.