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According to Ken Braxton, JD, a health care attorney at Dallas-based Stewart Stimmel, ED physicians, when notified of a possible lawsuit or claim, should avoid all of the following actions:
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Physicians' personal notes about a patient's care. Incident reports if a patient is harmed. Information given verbally or in writing to the hospital's risk managers.
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In a recently released advisory opinion, the Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG) has told the facility that requested the opinion, which they didn't disclose, that its plan to compensate physicians for taking call represented "a low risk of fraud and abuse."
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The leaders at San Francisco General Hospital were more than happy to participate in a nationwide Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program that offers routine rapid HIV testing to all ED patients, but they believed strongly that universal testing was not practical.
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An intervention that provided housing and case management to homeless adults with chronic medical illnesses reduced hospitalizations and ED visits in two Chicago-area hospitals, according to a study recently published in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
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A growing number of EDs are using physician scribes to help with histories and physical exams, but Joe Danna, MD, FACEP, has been using scribes for much, much more, and he says it's made a world of difference when it comes to staff morale.
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What are the leading ED best practices in large health systems? According to one national survey, they include taking a business-like approach to the management of the department.
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How would you like to be told that the hospital that houses your ED the large, "mother" facility that receives your patients for admission and provides a host of ancillary services that makes the running of your department go more smoothly was going to shut down, and that you were going to have to transform into a satellite ED (SED)?
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To address patient flow EDs across the country are employing different variations around boarding inpatients in upstairs hallways.
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Five employees from Redlands (CA) Community Hospital recently obtained training in fundamentals of emergency management at the Center for Domestic Preparedness based in Anniston, AL, operated by the Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). ED leaders say this valuable training has made them much better prepared for any disasters they might face.
