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Acute Coronary Syndromes

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  • Nurses' Charting May Deter Patient from Filing Lawsuit

    Simply hearing the words, "I am going to sue you ... can send shock waves up your spine," says Michelle Myers Glower, RN, MSN, LNC a health care consultant based in Grand Rapids, MI.
  • Did a Patient Threaten to Sue You? Don't Panic or Argue

    It is not uncommon for a patient or family member who is unhappy with the services he or she receives in the ED to make threatening statements about filing lawsuits, says Justin S. Greenfelder, JD, a health care attorney with Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs in Canton, OH.
  • Risk Increasing for Lawsuits Involving Delayed ED Diagnoses

    Errors related to missed or delayed diagnoses are a frequent cause of patient injury and, as such, are an underlying cause of patient-safety-related events, according to new research from the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority,1 which reviewed 100 events related to diagnostic errors between June 2004 and November 2009, 23 of which originated in the ED.
  • "Spike" in Suits for These Missed, Delayed Diagnoses

    To have a successful lawsuit in cases of missed or delayed diagnosis, a plaintiff needs at least two things, according to Michael Blaivas, MD, professor of emergency medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northside Hospital Forsyth in Cumming, GA.
  • Protect ED patient if a urinary catheter is placed

    Have you just placed a urinary catheter in an ED patient? If so, possible complications include urosepsis, septicemia, trauma to the urethra or bladder, and urethral perforation, warns Mark Goldstein, RN, MSN, EMT-P I/C, clinical nurse specialist at the Emergency Center at Beaumont Hospital in Grosse Pointe, MI.
  • Should you do an EKG? Err on side of caution!

    ED nurses at St. Elizabeth Healthcare Florence (KY) have cared for several healthy patients under age 35 with no history or family history of heart disease, who were having a cardiac event, reports Ben Brooks, RN, BSN.
  • Suspect prescription drug abuse with these symptoms

    If your patient is abusing narcotic pain medications, he or she isn't likely to come out and tell you this. However, ED visits involving misuse or abuse of pharmaceuticals nearly doubled during the past five years, according to a new report, totaling about 1.2 million visits in 2009, compared to 627,000 in 2004.
  • Misunderstood physician? Patient may be harmed

    If you're taking a verbal order from an emergency physician, remember that there is always a potential for miscommunication, warns René Borghese, RN, BAS, unit educator in the ED at Duke University Medical Center. "This is the primary reason we utilize them only when absolutely necessary," she says.
  • Boarded patients may be overlooked: Make changes

    David M. Solomon, RN, BSN, CEN, EMT-P, patient care coordinator in the ED at Catawba Valley Medical Center in Hickory, NC, says that usually, medications for boarded patients have to be ordered from the pharmacy.
  • Caring for a "psych" patient? Careful ED assessment may reveal otherwise!

    When a man with a known history of seizures came to the ED at the University of California San Diego Medical Center very agitated, diaphoretic, and yelling, ED nurses first thought he was having a schizophrenic breakdown, says Tia Valentine, RN, CEN, ED clinical nurse educator.