Reb Julia-Haas Close, MD

Specialties:

Addiction Medicine and Emergency Medicine

Dr. Close's publications related to Prescribe Safe

  1. Grover CA, Close RJ. Frequent users of the emergency department: risky business. West J Emerg Med. 2009; 10: 193-4. This was an opinion piece highlighting the problems associated with ED frequent users.
  2. Grover CA, Close RJ, Villarreal K, Goldman LM. Emergency department frequent user: pilot study of intensive case management to reduce visits and computed tomography. West J Emerg Med. 2010; 11: 336-43. This was a publication on the first 100 patients in the Frequent Users Group (original EDRVP). We reduced ED visits by 83% and CT scans by 67%.
  3. Grover CA, Wiele ED, Close RJ. Narcotic Bowel Syndrome. J Emerg Med. 2012; 43: 992-5. One of our EDRVP patients had chronic abdominal pain - and was ultimately diagnosed with Narcotic Bowel Syndrome after referral to a tertiary care center. As the opiate pain medications caused her recurrent abdominal pain - she asked us to write up the case to teach other providers about her diagnosis.
  4. Grover CA, Close RJ, Wiele ED, Villarreal K, Goldman LM. Quantifying drug-seeking behavior: a case control study. J Emerg Med. 2012; 42: 15-21. Since many of the EDRVP patients exhibit drug seeking behavior from chemical dependency issues, we looked at their behaviors to understand more about drug seeking behavior.
  5. Grover CA, Elder JW, Close RJ, Curry SM. How frequently are "Classic" Drug-Seeking Behaviors Used by Drug-Seeking Patients in the Emergency Department? West J Emerg Med. 2012; 13: 416-21. Since many of the EDRVP patients exhibit drug seeking behavior from chemical dependency issues, we took another at their behaviors to understand more about drug seeking behavior.
  6. Grover CA, Crawford E, Close RJ. The Efficacy of Case Management on Emergency Department frequent users: An Eight Year Observational Study. J Emerg Med. In press. All previous studies of case management have followed patients for 3 years or less. We had the data on patients for 8 years - and found that case management continues to work in the long term.
  7. Grover CA, Close RJ. Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula: Clinical Connection. [PDF] Winter 2017. Information piece for area physicians on the latest best practices to reduce harm to patients in prescribing addictive medications.
  8. Grover CA, Close RJ. Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula: Clinical Connection. [PDF] Winter 2016.
  9. ED Management. [PDF] October 2016. Information piece for area physicians on best practices to identify patients at risk for addiction and non-opioid treatments for pain.
  10. Grover CA, McKernan MP, Close RJH. Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) in the Emergency Department for Pain Relief: A Preliminary Study of Feasibility and Efficacy. West J Emerg Med. 2018; 19: 872-876. A study of using the non-opioid technology TENS in the ER at CHOMP proved to be a success! The first study of using such technology in the ER anywhere.
  11. Grover C, Christoffersen K, Clark L, Close R, Layhe S. Atraumatic back pain due to quadratus lumborum spasm treated by physical therapy with manual trigger point therapy in the Emergency Department. Clin Pract Cases Emerg Med. In press. A publication highlighting the successful work at CHOMP of using physical therapists with special training to relieve pain without medication.

Contact Information

  • Office: 831-275-4050

Locations

Profile

Gender:

Female

Languages:

English and Spanish

Areas of Interest

Addiction Medicine, Emergency Medicine

Experience

Year joined staff: 2003

Residency

2003
University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine

Internship

2000
Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital

Medical School

1999
University of California Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine

Board Certifications

  • Addiction Medicine, American Board of Preventive Medicine, 2023