Articles Tagged With: emergency
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Emergency Department Observation Units
Hospitals and EDs are challenged with overcrowding, overutilization, escalating healthcare costs, and avoidable admissions. As a result, observation units have grown in numbers.
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Risk Management Falls Under Criticism After a Patient is Forcibly Removed
Risk management at a Florida hospital was cited as insufficient in the state investigation following a high publicized incident in which a patient was forcibly removed, and the state rejected the hospital’s corrective action plan.
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Ebola outbreak brought unprecedented ethical challenges
Sangeeta Lamba, MD, associate professor of emergency medicine and surgery at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School in Newark, says Ebola was one of the biggest systemwide ethical challenges she’s seen in her career. “Nothing has challenged us more in emergency medicine, in the ethical realm, than Ebola,” she says.
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Emergency department registrars work with clinicians to identify “superusers”
Do you assume that “superusers” of the emergency department, or individuals who present very frequently with the same vague complaints, are just a nuisance?
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Commonly Missed Radiographic Findings
The practice of medicine involves judgment, the weighing of possibilities and probabilities. Even more so when interpreting radiographs.
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Health organization’s PI program speeds up multiple EDs
Hospital emergency department visits have increased by nearly one-third since the mid-1990s, and these high volumes have led to increased problems, such as overcrowded EDs and greater numbers of patients being diverted to other facilities or leaving without being seen, studies show.
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The “Choosing Wisely”® Campaign: An Evidence-Based Review of the Recommendations: Part I
The purpose of this paper is to perform a critical review of available evidence regarding each of the 10 recommendations.
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Failure to diagnose cauda equina syndrome results in $2.5 million verdict from jury
News: A 19-year-old woman sought treatment at a local hospital ED for severe lower back pain and pelvic numbness. A nurse practitioner quickly discharged her and attributed the symptoms to common back pain. The ED physician failed to consult with the patient, but subsequently approved the nurse’s actions. Two days later, the patient was diagnosed with cauda equine syndrome but had suffered serious and permanent injuries.
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$21.9 M award in elective steroid injection procedure
A 54-year-old woman suffered from chronic and severe back pain, and she underwent an elective epidural steroid injection. While sedated, the patient’s airway became blocked, which resulted in oxygen deprivation for as long as 10 minutes. Multiple electronic monitors indicated that the patient was not breathing properly, but the physician continued the procedure. Emergency assistance was not called for more than an hour, and the physician failed to report to a subsequent treating hospital that the patient was deprived of oxygen for several minutes. The patient suffered severe brain damage, and she died six years after the procedure from complications related to the brain injury. The jury awarded the widower and estate $21.9 million in damages.
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Classic Heavy Hitters: Tricky Diagnoses That Recurrently Lead to Large Malpractice Payouts