Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 55, Issue 3 , Pages 268-273 , March 2010

Drive-Through Medicine: A Novel Proposal for Rapid Evaluation of Patients During an Influenza Pandemic

Received 24 August 2009 ,Revised 2 November 2009 ,Accepted 20 November 2009.

References 

  1. World Health Organization. Guidelines for Humanitarian Agencies: Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Mitigation in Refugee and Displaced Populations. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2006;
  2. Meltzer MI, Cox NJ, Fukuda K. The economic impact of pandemic influenza in the United States: priorities for intervention. Emerg Infect Dis. 1999;5:659–671
  3. Committee on the Future of Emergency Care in the United States Health System, Institute of Medicine. Hospital-Based Emergency Care at the Breaking Point. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2007;
  4. Derlet RW, Richards JR. Overcrowding in the nation's emergency departments: complex causes and disturbing effects. Ann Emerg Med. 2000;35:63–68
  5. Pines JM, Pollack CV, Diercks DB, et al. The association between emergency department crowding and adverse cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chest pain. Acad Emerg Med. 2009;16:617–625
  6. Kellermann AL. Crisis in the emergency department. N Engl J Med. 2006;355:1300–1303
  7. Stott DJ, Kerr G, Carman WF. Nosocomial transmission of influenza. Occup Med (Lond). 2002;52:249–253
  8. Zerwekh T, McKnight J, Hupert N, et al. Mass medication modeling in response to public health emergencies: outcomes of a drive-thru exercise. J Public Health Manag Pract. 2007;13:7–15
  9. Bernstein SL, Aronsky D, Duseja R, et al. The effect of emergency department crowding on clinically oriented outcomes. Acad Emerg Med. 2009;16:1–10
  10. Liu S, Hobgood C, Brice JH. Impact of critical bed status on emergency department patient flow and overcrowding. Acad Emerg Med. 2003;10:382–385
  11. Pachucki CT, Pappas SA, Fuller GF, et al. Influenza A among hospital personnel and patients (Implications for recognition, prevention, and control). Arch Intern Med. 1989;149:77–80

 Supervising editor: Ellen J. Weber, MD

 Author contributions: EAW, JN, and GHG conceived the study. EAW, JN, GHG, and JVQ designed the trial. EAW, JN, and GHG supervised the conduct of the trial and data collection. JVQ provided statistical advice on study design and analyzed the data. EAW drafted the article, and all authors contributed substantially to its revision. EAW takes responsibility for the paper as a whole.

 Funding and support: By Annals policy, all authors are required to disclose any and all commercial, financial, and other relationships in any way related to the subject of this article that might create any potential conflict of interest. The authors have stated that no such relationships exist. See the Manuscript Submission Agreement in this issue for examples of specific conflicts covered by this statement.

 Reprints not available from the authors.

 Please see page 269 for the Editor's Capsule Summary of this article.

 Publication date: Available online January 15, 2010.

PII: S0196-0644(09)01799-5

doi: 10.1016/j.annemergmed.2009.11.025

Annals of Emergency Medicine
Volume 55, Issue 3 , Pages 268-273 , March 2010