COVID-19 in Children in the United States: Intensive Care Admissions, Estimated Total Infected, and Projected Numbers of Severe Pediatric Cases in 2020.

Importance: A surge in severe cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) in children would present unique challenges for hospitals and public health preparedness efforts in the United States.

Objective: To provide evidence-based estimates of children infected with SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) and projected cumulative numbers of severely ill pediatric COVID-19 cases requiring hospitalization during the US 2020 pandemic.

Design: Empirical case projection study.

Those Responsible for Approving Research Studies Have Poor Knowledge of Research Study Design: a Knowledge Assessment of Institutional Review Board Members.

Background: Institutional Review Board (IRB) members have a duty to protect the integrity of the research process, but little is known about their basic knowledge of clinical research study designs.

Methods: A nationwide sample of IRB members from major US research universities completed a web-based questionnaire consisting of 11 questions focusing on basic knowledge about clinical research study designs. It included questions about randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other observational research study designs.

Routine diversion of patients with STEMI to high-volume PCI centres: modelling the financial impact on referral hospitals.

Objective: To quantify possible revenue losses from proposed ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patient diversion policies for small hospitals that lack high-volume percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) capability status (ie, 'STEMI referral hospitals').

Background: Negative financial impacts on STEMI referral hospitals have been discussed as an important barrier to implementing regional STEMI bypass/transfer protocols. However, there is little empirical data available that directly quantifies this potential financial impact.

Transfer of residents to hospital prior to cardiac death: the influence of nursing home quality and ownership type.

Objectives: We hypothesised that among nursing home decedents, nursing home for-profit status and poor quality-of-care ratings, as well as patient characteristics, would lower the likelihood of transfer to hospital prior to heart disease death.

Methods: Using death certificates from a large metropolitan area (Tampa Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area) for 1998-2002, we geocoded residential street addresses of heart disease decedents to identify 2172 persons who resided in nursing homes (n=131) at the time of death. We analysed decedent place of death as an indicator of transfer prior to death.

From hospice to hospital: short-term follow-up study of hospice patient outcomes in a US acute care hospital surveillance system.

Objectives: In the USA, there is little systematic evidence about the real-world trajectories of patient medical care after hospice enrolment. The objective of this study was to analyse predictors of the length of stay for hospice patients who were admitted to hospital in a retrospective analysis of the mandatorily reported hospital discharge data.

Setting: All acute-care hospitals in Florida during 1 January 2010 to 30 June 2012.

Dementia: a barrier to receiving percutaneous coronary intervention for elderly patients with ST-elevated myocardial infarction.

Objective: Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the first line of treatment for ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI). This study evaluates the role of dementia in diagnostic cardiac catheterization (to receive PCI) in STEMI patients ≥65 years old admitted to high annual volume PCI hospitals.

Methods: Participants were registered in Florida's comprehensive inpatient surveillance system for the years 2006-2007 with principal diagnosis of STEMI.

De Facto regionalization of care for ST-elevation myocardial infarction in Florida, 2001-2009.

ACC/AHA guidelines recommend STEMI patients receive percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) at high volume hospitals performing ≥400 procedures/year. The objective of this study was to evaluate changes in the organization and implementation of care for STEMI patients in Florida. We assessed trends and predictors of STEMI patients first hospitalized at high PCI volume hospitals in Florida from 2001-2009.

Spatial clustering of non-transported cardiac decedents: the results of a point pattern analysis and an inquiry into social environmental correlates.

Background: People who die from heart disease at home before any attempt at transport has been made may represent missed opportunities for life-saving medical intervention. In this study, we undertook a point-pattern spatial analysis of heart disease deaths occurring before transport in a large metropolitan area to determine whether there was spatial clustering of non-transported decedents and whether there were significant differences between the clusters of non-transported cardiac decedents and the clusters of transported cardiac decedents in terms of average travel distances to nearest hospital and area socioeconomic characteristics. These analyses were adjusted for individual predictors of transport status.

Transfer travel times for primary percutaneous coronary intervention from low-volume and non-percutaneous coronary intervention-capable hospitals to high-volume centers in Florida.

Study Objective: Current guidelines recommend that ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients receive percutaneous coronary intervention less than or equal to 90 minutes from first medical contact, preferably at high-volume percutaneous coronary intervention centers (≥400 percutaneous coronary interventions annually). Because many patients present to low-volume or non-percutaneous coronary intervention-capable STEMI referral hospitals, timely percutaneous coronary intervention treatment requires effective transfer systems, which include interfacility transport times of less than 30 minutes. We investigate the geographic feasibility of achieving timely interfacility transport from STEMI referral hospitals to percutaneous coronary intervention hospitals in Florida.

A multilevel analysis of absence of transport to a hospital before premature cardiac death.

Introduction: Prompt transportation to a hospital and aggressive medical treatment can often prevent acute cardiac events from becoming fatal. Consequently, lack of transport before death may represent lost opportunities for life-saving interventions. We investigated the effect of individual characteristics (age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, and marital status) and small-area factors (population density and social cohesion) on the probability of premature cardiac decedents dying without transport to a hospital.

Percutaneous coronary intervention, comorbidities, and mortality among emergency department-admitted ST-elevation myocardial infarction patients in Florida.

Background: Risk of mortality following an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) can be significantly reduced by prompt percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). National guidelines specify primary PCI as the preferred recommended treatment for STEMI. In this study, we examined same-day PCI as an independent predictor of in-hospital mortality, after adjustment for comorbidities, other patient factors, and hospital PCI-volume using unselected surveillance data from Florida.

Recent racial/ethnic disparities in stroke hospitalizations and outcomes for young adults in Florida, 2001-2006.

Background: Black-white disparities in stroke mortality are well documented, but few recent studies have examined racial/ethnic disparities in stroke hospitalizations among young adults. We analyzed recent (2001-2006) trends in stroke hospitalizations and hospital case-fatality for black, Hispanic, and white adults aged 25-49 years in Florida.

Methods: Hospitalization rates were calculated using population estimates from the census, and hospital discharges with a primary diagnosis of stroke (ICD-9-CM 430, 431, 434, 436) (n = 16,317).

Disparities in use of same-day percutaneous coronary intervention for patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction in Florida, 2001-2005.

Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is the recommended treatment for ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), according to American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association guidelines published in 1999 and 2004. In this study, hospital and patient predictors of same-day primary PCI use for STEMI were examined across the period from 2001 to 2005. Inpatient discharge data for adults aged > or =18 years with primary diagnoses of STEMI who were admitted to Florida hospitals through emergency departments (ED) from 2001 to 2005 (n = 58,308) were analyzed.

Looking under the Hispanic umbrella: cancer mortality among Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics in Florida.

Cancer is the second leading cause of death among Hispanics. Most of the cancer statistics available both at the state and national levels report cancer statistics for all Hispanics as an aggregate group. The goal of this paper is to provide a population-based overview of cancer mortality among Hispanics (Cubans, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and other Hispanics) in Florida from 1990 to 2000 and to explore the demographic diversity of this growing ethnic group.