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If a patient presents visibly intoxicated and announces his or her intent to harm others, it's easy to make the decision to involve security. However, any ED patient or visitor has the potential to become physically violent, warns Gordon Lee Gillespie, PhD, RN, PHCNS-BC, CEN, CCRN, CPEN, FAEN, assistant professor and director of population-focused care at University of Cincinnati (OH) College of Nursing.
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Dog-bite injuries resulting in hospital admissions have increased drastically in recent years, from 5100 cases in 1993 to 9500 in 2008, according to a recent report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
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Recent outbreaks of measles, mumps, and pertussis prompted this issue. Just this past month, outbreaks of measles were reported in California and Florida. These diseases were thought to be disappearing, but now many are returning. And the emergency physician will be called upon to diagnose and treat them. "Childhood" diseases are now seen in adults, often with more serious morbidity and mortality.
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Drowning is a major global public health problem. In 2000, the World Health Organization reported drowning as the second leading cause of unintentional death worldwide.
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In July 2011, Joint Commission (JC) surveyors will begin holding hospitals accountable for some of the elements of performance (EP) contained in new patient-centered communication standards that were first unveiled last summer.
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For many months, the buzz among health care administrators and policy-makers has been all about accountable care organizations (ACOs), an emerging payment and delivery model that many hope will put an end to the fragmented nature of America's health care system while also bringing down costs.
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If improved care coordination is integral to bending the health care cost curve, then the interchange between emergency physicians and primary care practitioners (PCPs) is in need of significant improvement, according to a new study on this issue conducted by the Washington, DC-based Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) for the nonprofit National Institute for Health Care Reform (NIHCR).
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To say our specialty has a full plate is an understatement. We are facing down a number of issues that are guaranteed to transition us to a new world.
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Sumner Regional Medical Center in Gallatin, TN, offers good evidence that quick-turnarounds are indeed possible when you have motivated staff.
