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Pertussis, commonly known as the "whooping cough," is an infection of the upper respiratory tract leading to a protracted cough illness. Emergency physicians should become familiar with the diagnosis and management of this disease, given the potential of pertussis infections to cause serious morbidity and mortality in young infants.
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It may be in the best interest of your ED patient with chest pain, seizures, or transient ischemic attack (TIA) to be admitted, but this may not occur due to factors beyond your control.
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There is mounting evidence in the literature that the routine practice by paramedics of administering IV fluids to severely injured patients before they are transported to the hospital is not only unnecessary, but may also cause harm.
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While faster throughput makes financial sense for EDs today, there is some concern that that the type of lower-acuity patient most influenced by advertised wait times may not make financial sense in the future because payers may not be willing to pay for non-emergency care in such an expensive setting, explains David Cummings, RN, CEN, corporate administrator, patient care operations, at Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in Memphis, TN.
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The efficacy of statins in preventing cardiovascular events is well known, but approximately 10% of patients will develop elevations in liver function tests (LFTs).
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James L. Reinertsen, MD, received a 2010 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety and Quality award for individual achievement from The Joint Commission and the National Quality Forum
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At most hospitals, the vast majority of physician orders are still written by hand. That means a lot of hurried squiggles that no one can decipher, and time-wasting phone calls to clarify the order, not to mention the threat to patient safety
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Most hospitals have no documented information about communication events phone calls, pages, texts, voicemails between their nurses, physicians and other clinicians that occur hundreds of times each day.