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If someone told you that an ED had experienced a 60% increase in volume between 2000 and 2008, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that the average length of stay (LOS) for their patients also had increased dramatically.
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Recently, a patient at Northwest Medical Center in Tucson, AZ, was diagnosed with measles and ordered into isolation by her physician, but remained unisolated in the ED for more than 12 hours.
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[Editor's note: This column addresses readers' questions about the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). If you have a question you'd like answered, contact Steve Lewis, Editor, ED Management, Atlanta. Phone: (770) 442-9805. Fax: (770) 664-8557. E-mail:
[email protected].]
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A man with chest pain tells your ED physician that he uses cocaine and is HIV-positive, then asks the physician not to tell his girlfriend who is about to enter the room.
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ED physicians should not disclose a patient's HIV status, except when there is a legal mandate to do so and even in this case, this is preferably done through a third party, such as a public health official, advises Matthew Rice, MD, JD, FACEP, an ED physician with Northwest Emergency Physicians of TEAMHealth in Federal Way, WA.
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According to Jill M. Steinberg, a health care attorney with Baker Donelson in Memphis, TN, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) would prevent an ED physician from discussing a patient's HIV status with any other person, even if that person could be potentially exposed to an infectious disease.
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A growing number of hospitals are allowing patients to view their own medical records electronically. Does this increase liability risks for emergency staff?
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Joint Commission Resources (JCR) has launched a "Flu Vaccination Challenge" to underscore the responsibility that hospitals have to help keep their employees and patients healthy this flu season and to increase flu vaccination rates among health care workers.
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In light of the importance of having health care workers immunized against influenza, some facilities have instituted mandatory vaccination programs.
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The Food and Drug Administration has approved a new test to diagnose human flu infections, including the avian flu virus (H5N1), which scientists fear could cause a pandemic.
