ED Nursing Archives – March 1, 2010
March 1, 2010
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Be sure no eligible patient misses new treatment window for stroke
With an expanded treatment window of 4.5 hours, more of your stroke patients are eligible for treatment with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Minutes still count, however. -
Make immediate changes to stop ED asthma visits
If your patient tells you he's had asthma since he was a teenager, don't assume that he must already know how to self-manage his condition. -
Don't get complacent with hand hygiene
(Editor's note: This is the second of a two-part series on prevention of hospital-acquired infections in the ED. This month, we give strategies to improve compliance with hand hygiene, tips for cleaning the equipment you use and tell you how to determine if your patient has arrived at the ED with an infection. Last month, we covered avoiding infections when invasive procedures are performed, reducing the risk of infection with peripheral IV insertion, using alternatives to invasive procedures, giving central-line education to ED nurses, and decreasing the use of central lines and urinary catheters.) -
Did your ED patient arrive with an infection?
If a patient comes to your ED with a pre-existing infection that goes unnoticed, the insurer likely will to refuse to pay for treatment because it will presume wrongly that the condition was acquired in the hospital. -
Don't miss underlying reason for elder's fall
Fractures were the most common injury (41%) of more than 2 million elders coming to community EDs in 2006 because of fall injuries, says a new report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).