Articles Tagged With:
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Psych Patients Elope or Are Discharged? Either Way, It’s a Wrongful Death Lawsuit
If psychiatric patients are discharged or elope from the ED and harm themselves or others, a wrongful death lawsuit is possible. To reduce risks, EPs can document that there was no evidence of homicidal or suicidal ideation at the time of the ED visit, contact a psychiatrist to support the decision to discharge, keep the patient secure until the evaluation is complete, and take reasonable precautions when patients are transported to another facility.
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Liability for EP if Admitted Patient’s Condition Deteriorated
EPs are not absolved of legal responsibility for admitted patients who remain in the ED while waiting for an inpatient bed to become available. Juries rely on documentation to determine what information was communicated to the admitting physician. Providing treatment to admitted patients can lead to the EP being held to a higher standard of care. Undocumented interactions are problematic for the defense.
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ED-based EHR Errors Caused More Significant Harm to Patients Compared to Other Settings
Seeking to obtain more information on health IT-related problems, researchers analyzed EHR-related cases occurring between 2011 and 2015. They found 420 cases in which the EHR was a contributing factor. Of this group, 50 cases occurred in the ED.
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The Opioid Minefield
The opioid epidemic has become not only a public health crisis, but also a political one. Legislative activity at the state and federal levels of government has reached a fever pitch, the ramifications of which certainly will affect the practice of emergency medicine.
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Reducing Falls Among Older Adults
Exercise, correction of impaired vision, supplemental calcium/vitamin D, and environmental interventions reduce falls. Interventions that are multimodal appear to produce additive benefits.
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Dealing With Severe Acute Pain in the ED
The success of a non-opioid treatment arm in direct comparison with three opioid treatment arms should justify greater consideration of non-opioid treatment for acute severe pain.
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The Ever-elusive Prescription for the Optimum Diet
Somewhat contrary to the prevailing wisdom, intake of total fat was inversely associated with total mortality. Even the much-maligned saturated fat in the diet was associated with a reduced hazard ratio for total mortality.
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Diuretic Use in Heart Failure
For diuretic resistance, the authors endorsed continuous diuretic infusion with stepwise dose increases to achieve a 3-5 liter/day urine volume until euvolemia is achieved.
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When Gastrointestinal Complaints Are Not Prominent
In a review of patients with biopsy-proven celiac disease, those who presented with gastrointestinal symptoms exhibited a median time to diagnosis of 2.3 months, compared to 42 months for those without gastrointestinal symptoms.
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Sexual Dysfunction Among Diabetics
In a review of diabetic men and diabetic women, evaluations of sexual quality of life in both genders was meaningfully affected by partner sexual dysfunction. Perhaps not surprisingly, age and duration of diabetes were the strongest predictors of sexual dysfunction in diabetic men. The authors opined that insufficient attention has been given to the presence and effect of sexual dysfunction on the quality of life of patients and their partners.