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If your ED patient is taking multiple medications, he or she may have no idea what they are for. "They may tell us they are taking them because they were prescribed, without knowing what the purpose is or if the dosage changed recently," says Jocelyn Cajanap, RN, ED educator at Glendale (CA) Adventist Medical Center.
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While observing an elderly woman rubbing her arm as though it was a muscle ache, which she said was from gardening work, the possibility of a heart attack didn't cross the mind of the ED nurse caring for the patient.
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If your ED patient is sedated, he or she may have an adverse reaction to medications used in the procedure, an allergic reaction, or become hypoxic from inadequate respiratory effort, warns Brad Guffin, BSN, RN-BC, CPEN, director of emergency services at Martin Memorial Medical Center in Stuart, FL.
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Hospices serving people with Medicare will see a 2.5% increase in their Medicare payments for fiscal year (FY) 2012, according to a final regulation released July 29, 2011, by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Hospices also are called upon to begin reporting on the quality of care received by Medicare patients as a result of this final regulation.
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This is the second of a two-part series that looks at communicating with patients who have difficulty communicating. Last month, we looked at innovative and proven strategies to communicate with patients who have dementia. This month, tips and strategies for communicating with pediatric patients, and their families, are offered.
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It's no secret that emergency medicine providers are frustrated by patients who inappropriately come to the ED for primary care, pharmaceuticals, and help with a wide range of social issues.
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With demand for ED beds surging as the nation's demographics, health care needs, and finances continue to change, a number of health systems across the country are opening stand-alone EDs freestanding centers that are staffed by emergency physicians and deliver emergency care, but are not attached to a main campus or hospital facility.
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Hospitals that want to distinguish themselves as centers of excellence in the care of heart failure (HF) have a new avenue to pursue.
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With our economy in shambles, and July unemployment at 9.2% nationally just short of the all-time high of 10.81% and way off the mark of the all-time low of 3.31% fewer and fewer ED patients are insured, and it's a significant challenge to manage the resulting uptick in ED visits.