A new survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians, conducted in October, revealed that 87% of emergency physicians say they are more stressed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, 72% report experiencing more professional burnout.

Risk managers should be wary of the malpractice risks associated with telehealth, according to several experts who say the sudden increase in usage may have introduced insufficiencies that should be assessed now.

As telehealth visits play an important role in family planning during the pandemic, providers should be aware their patients might be closely monitored by their partners, especially in cases of intimate partner violence. Abusers might check the woman’s phone messages, digital communication, and apps with messaging.

Few questions are of greater concern to emergency health personnel these days than how they can protect themselves from COVID-19. It is an issue loaded with nuance. Much depends on such factors as how someone works in the emergency department, what procedures they perform, what specific practices they use when performing those procedures, and how often they are exposed.

A truism that has been observed in various forms is the only time one can show courage is when one acts in the face of fear. This is what healthcare workers responding to the coronavirus pandemic are essentially doing, one expert says.

There is no mandatory retirement age for physicians, but there is good reason to consider how aging may affect their abilities to safely and effectively practice medicine, especially for surgeons. Some healthcare organizations are addressing those concerns with programs that provide additional monitoring and testing for physicians as they age.

Responding to allegations of physician misbehavior is a challenge. A recent court case holds lessons for what can go wrong when a hospital does not follow best practices or even its own internal policies.

The results of two recent investigations reveal that young people and physicians offer differing views about using social media to recruit participants into clinical research trials.