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To illustrate how EDs set themselves up for malpractice liability when treating head injuries, Diane M. Sixsmith, MD, MPH, FACEP, chairman of emergency medicine at New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens in Flushing, tells the story of a 22-year-old boxer who was knocked out in a training session.
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Whether you use a list or not, the best way to deal with drug seekers in your ED is to get tough with them, says John Burke, commander of the Warren County (OH) Drug Task Force in Cincinnati, and a former police officer.
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The first step in formalizing your list of drug seekers or other frequent visitors to your ED is to avoid any disparaging names for them or the list, says Joel Geiderman, MD, FACEP, co-chair of the ED at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
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Question: Were debating two questions in our hospital regarding when EMTALA applies. First, does the law apply to patients who only are holding in the ED because there are no beds available in the hospital? And does it apply when an air ambulance uses our helipad but does not bring the patient to our ED?
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Q&A: Food and Drug Administration's actions on dietary supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids. Altern Med Alert 2004;7(3 Suppl):S1-S2.
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Greenfield RH. Fat intake and breast cancer risk. Altern Med Alert 2004;7(3):36.
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Kim YH. Mindulness meditation and chronic pain. Altern Med Alert 2004;7(3):33-35.
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Recent cases involving the undertreatment of pain, the over-treatment of pain (and thereby the creation of addicts), and whether drug seekers have any legal rights to pain management have created management problems for the emergency physician. This issue of ED Legal Letter will look at some of these cases. The author addresses recent changes in pain management medications, and readers will be able to develop a practical approach to the patient with pain with fewer worries about the legal consequences.
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