-
ED managers should note two areas of the recently released 2004 Annual Report from the National Trauma Data Bank (NTDB) of the American College of Surgeons (ACS): the aging population and falls, and the number of self-pay payments.
-
This column addresses readers questions about the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). Question: How Does EMTALA apply to law enforcement requests for services in the ED?
-
-
Encouraging patients not to come to your ED? Building a new ED with no waiting room? These are among the creative, and perhaps controversial, strategies adopted by two ED managers determined to address surge capacity in new and more effective ways.
-
The ED patient, lying in bed in her own private room, picks up the all-in-one telephone handset and remote control beside her and calls her husband to tell him shes been in a car accident. She clicks on the 12-inch TV monitor, watches for a while, and then decides to switch over to the radio for some calming music.
-
A recent study by a University of Michigan cardiologist on behalf of a Michigan-wide angioplasty research group produced a sobering statistic: Of 1,551 heart attack patients who had emergency angioplasty at hospitals in Michigan, women waited on average more than 118 minutes before treatment began, compared with 105 minutes for men.
-
-
For the emergency physician, sexual assault represents the most common presenting complaint associated with the potential for an unintended pregnancy. Annually, approximately 40,000 people in the United States visit EDs after sexual assault. Pregnancy is estimated to occur in approximately 5% of sexual assaults. Thus, pregnancy prevention is an important part of the care for these patients. For the emergency physician, EC represents the most viable treatment option. However, while highly effective when used properly, it is associated with a number of issues that make it much less commonly used.
-
The outcome of a medical malpractice case often depends on an experts opinion and how well that expert conveys that opinion to a jury. Despite the important role that experts play within the medical malpractice system, until recently, there has been little oversight of expert witness actions. With the increasing number of professional and legal actions against expert witnesses, it appears that the same experts hired to review the actions of their peers are starting to be scrutinized themselves. This months issue of the ED Legal Letter will address some of these issues that relate to the role of the expert witness.
-
