Shannon Smith-Bernardin
University of California-San Francisco, CA·Public Health & Epidemiology·Early-career
When someone is heavily intoxicated by alcohol but otherwise not medically ill, where should the ambulance take them? In the United States, emergency departments (EDs) and the ambulance system (emergency medical services, EMS) provide most acute care for alcohol intoxication.
- Fields
Public Health & Epidemiology
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
alcohol intoxication
alcohol use disorder
sobering center
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Measure how often adults with acute alcohol intoxication are seen by EMS, EDs and the San Francisco Sobering Center, using merged administrative data to compare patient, provider and environmental factors tied to transport decisions.
- Identify modifiable factors that lead ambulance personnel to take patients with uncomplicated alcohol intoxication to the ED instead of the Sobering Center, through in-depth interviews guided by the CFIR implementation framework.
- Combine administrative and interview findings to inform a future trial of an intervention that reduces variation in triage and increases appropriate use of sobering centers.
More about the research
Between 2% and 12% of patients in medical or psychiatric EDs are acutely intoxicated. Sobering centers were designed as a safe alternative for people with acute uncomplicated alcohol intoxication who do not need ED care. Used appropriately, they could reduce ED visits and ED overcrowding.
Why it matters
Acute alcohol intoxication strains ambulance services and crowded emergency departments. By showing which factors steer paramedics toward the ED rather than a sobering center, this work could inform changes that send people with uncomplicated intoxication to safe, lower-cost care. That could free ED resources for other patients and improve care for people with alcohol-use disorders.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
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Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY·Medicine & Clinical Research·Early-career
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The school
University of California-San Francisco: 89 labs on PI Pages, $2.1B a year on research, 164 research doctorates a year.
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