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Recent cases involving the undertreatment of pain, the over-treatment of pain (and thereby the creation of addicts), and whether drug seekers have any legal rights to pain management have created management problems for the emergency physician. This issue of ED Legal Letter will look at some of these cases. The author addresses recent changes in pain management medications, and readers will be able to develop a practical approach to the patient with pain with fewer worries about the legal consequences.
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While states are coming under fire for not spending as much tobacco settlement money on smoking cessation programs for youth as they should, the American Legacy Foundations 2002 National Youth Tobacco Survey indicates that the prevalence of current smoking among high-school students declined in 2002.
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Although Zeena Engelke, RN, MS, has multiple job duties as patient education manager of the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison, she has managed to incorporate direct teaching into her position as well.
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While an elderly man on the anticoagulant drug warfarin was waiting to get blood drawn at his physicians office, he was handed some educational materials about the drug.
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A behavioral health care center in Mississippi is proving that a concentrated effort to reduce restraint can yield great improvements not only for the patients but also for the bottom line of the health care facility.
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Medical malpractice insurance premiums are 17.1% lower in states that have capped court awards, although the lack of such tort reform measures in other states does not fully explain recent jumps in what physicians pay to cover the cost of malpractice suits, says Kenneth E. Thorpe, PhD, chairman of the health policy and management department at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta.
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A young man went to an emergency department in the afternoon complaining of discomfort in his throat. Surgery was performed to address an abscess. That evening, after his family had gone home, he suffered from cardiac arrhythmia, went into a coma, and died three days later. His wife and two sons brought suit for wrongful death.
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The emergency physician plays a key role in the management of HIV. Emergency physicians encounter all phases of the illness, from counseling patients on safe sex practices to treating the medical complications of chronic immunosuppression. Despite all of the recent advances, HIV infection and AIDS remain challenging and continually evolving diseases. In this issue of Emergency Medicine Specialty Reports, the authors provide a comprehensive update on the diagnosis and clinical management of HIV infection and its complications.
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Because disease management programs do not provide instantaneous savings, the decision to invest in them represents a belief that savings will occur down the line as a result of the programs effectiveness.
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New data indicate that the continuous deterioration that plagued state finances for the past several years appears to be easing. The reports come from the National Governors Association (NGA), National Association of State Budget Officers, and the National Conference of State Legislatures.
