The HII Score – A Novel Tool to Assess Impairment from Alcohol in Emergency Department Patients

Abstract

Background

Over 35 million alcohol impaired (AI) patients are cared for in Emergency Departments (EDs) annually. Emergency physicians are charged with ensuring AI patients’ safety by identifying resolution of alcohol induced impairment. The most common standard evaluation is an extemporized clinical examination, as ethanol levels are not reliable or predictive of clinical symptoms. There is no standard assessment of ED AI patients.

Objective

To evaluate a novel standardized emergency department assessment of alcohol impairment — Hack's Impairment Index (HII score), in a busy urban Emergency Department.

Methods

A retrospective chart review was performed for all AI patients seen in our busy urban ED over 24 months. Trained nurses evaluated AI patients with both “usual” and HII score every 2 hours. Patients were stratified by frequency of visits for AI during this time: high (≥ 6), medium (2-5), and low (1). Within each category, comparisons were made between HII scores, measured ethanol levels, and usual nursing assessment of AI. Changes in HII scores over time were also evaluated.

Results

8074 visits from 3219 unique patients were eligible for study, including 7973 (98.7%) with ethanol levels, 5061 (62.7%) with complete HII scores, and 3646 (45.2%) with HCP assessments. Correlations between HII scores and ethanol levels were poor (Pearson's R² = 0.09, 0.09, and 0.17 for high-, medium-, and low-frequency strata). HII scores were excellent at discriminating nursing assessment of AI, while ethanol levels were less effective. Omitting extrema, HII scores fell consistently an average 0.062 points per hour, throughout patients’ visits.

Conclusions

The HII score applied a quantitative, objective assessment of alcohol impairment. HII scores were superior to ethanol levels as an objective clinical measure of impairment. The HII declines in a reasonably predictable manner over time, with serial evaluations corresponding well with HCP evaluations.

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