According to some sources, there only may be about a dozen of them in operation in the United States, but ED managers had better familiarize themselves with the term freestanding ED. The trend appears to be growing steadily. Within just the past few weeks:
Read More
A man walked into an ED, told several nurses he was a doctor, and asked for a patients room number. The nurses showed him the room, where he proceeded to look through the patients medical charts. Theres only one problem: The man wasnt a doctor!
Read More
Perhaps the most challenging aspect of this summers heat wave was that it not only affected areas that were accustomed to extreme heat, such as Phoenix, but many that were not, including northern states such as Pennsylvania and Michigan. In areas such as these, creative protocols and processes, along with a healthy dose of preparation, can help you through these crises with a minimal impact on throughput and patient care, ED managers say.
Read More
ED physicians who have the greatest fear of malpractice suits are more likely than their colleagues to admit and order tests for patients with chest pain or other heart symptoms, even if those patients are at low risk for actual problems, according to a study led by David Katz, MD, associate professor of internal medicine in the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
Read More
Should EDs offer comprehensive care such as screenings and vaccinations to patients who may not be able to get it elsewhere, or should they emphasize providing efficient, but not comprehensive, care to all patients?
Read More
Acute care hospitals will receive a 3.2% inflation update in Medicare payment rates in 2006 for outpatient services under a proposed Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rule announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), a slight change from the 3.3% update in the final rule for 2005. Experts say that when you read between the lines of the latest proposal, the results are quite similar: Not much has changed.
Read More
ED managers should avoid evaluation and management (E&M) level decision matrix or scoring tools that use ED procedures (intravenous lines, injectables, laceration repairs, or ancillary tests) as part of their level determination, says Marty Karpiel, MPA, FACHE, FHFMA, president of Karpiel Consulting Group in Long Beach, CA.
Read More
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has just released Emergency Severity Index (ESI) Version 4, an updated tool to help ED staff manage the flow of patients more effectively.
Read More
The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations recently has posted answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about several new, revised, and updated standards in the Comprehensive Accreditation Manual for Hospitals.
Read More
