Emergency Medicine Topics
RSSArticles
-
Delays in Acute Stroke Treatment Contribute to Malpractice Claims
Recent research findings underscore the importance of always considering stroke in the differential diagnosis of altered mental status, even when the patient does not arrive by EMS.
-
Intervention for Critically Ill Patients Lowered In-Hospital Mortality Rates
Researchers believe their work could be a starting place for emergency clinicians to think about novel care delivery models for seriously ill patients.
-
Reversal of Oral Anticoagulation in the Emergency Department
This review will describe the physiological components of the clotting cascade, highlight common anticoagulant agents in use, and discuss means of oral anticoagulation reversal.
-
Emergency Providers Intervene to Prevent Suicide Attempts, Ideation
Researchers use quality improvement concepts to help clinicians identify high-risk patients.
-
American Heart Association Urges Improvement in Stroke Care
In a scientific statement, the group offered tactics to eliminate the racial and ethnic inequities that exist in stroke incidence, prevalence, treatment, and outcomes.
-
Does One Negative Troponin Measurement Rule Out Acute Coronary Syndrome?
Using a common clinical chest pain algorithm plus a point-of-care troponin measurement for low-risk patients, researchers reported significantly lower healthcare costs. Also, this approach did not seem to result in more major adverse cardiovascular events.
-
Give Actionable Incidental Findings Proper Attention
New recommendations help health systems implement processes that will preserve patient safety. These tips aim to make it easy for providers to do right by their patients when clinicians identify actionable incidental findings.
-
Malpractice Lawsuits Allege ED Missed Intracranial Aneurysms
Failure to image patients is a relatively frequent cause of litigation, but it should be seen in context. It is not so much incorrect interpretations of imaging studies; rather, failure to consider the possibility of an aneurysm, resulting in an inadequate workup, is a more common allegation.
-
Does a Clinical Decision Aid Constitute the Legal Standard of Care?
Each emergency physician should undertake the appropriate medical approach to evaluating a patient, regardless of any recommended course of action. The medical record should support using the recommended path or justify another course of action.
-
Did EP Decide Not to Follow Recommendation of Computer Decision Aid?
The medical record should demonstrate the clinician saw the recommendation, thought about it, and decided what to do. The clinician still may be wrong. But now, it is more of a judgment error than simple carelessness.