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At 9 p.m. on March 5, a woman who had been a patient in the ED at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, FL, returned there in scrubs and claimed to be a temporary worker. Although she had no ID badge, staff accepted her story that she had lost it. She was allowed to enter the ED and worked for 10 hours as a patient care technician.
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When you learn that a hospital has a rapid response team (RRT), your initial assumption might be that it is being staffed and managed by the ICU, and in many cases you'd be right. But in a growing number of facilities, particularly smaller community hospitals, that role is being filled by the ED.
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"Overcrowding? What overcrowding?" That could well be the slogan of EDs in Fort Wayne, IN, where diversion rates in its five hospitals are consistently below national averages.
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Failing to document that a critical lab value was read back, if your ED's policy requires this. Failing to realize that there are long delays in reporting urgent test results to ED physicians.
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The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in Washington, DC, is accepting comments through May 31 on draft guidance clarifying the scope of medical liability coverage provided under the Federal Torts Claims Act (FTCA) to federally supported health centers and their employees during emergencies.
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The Joint Commission has proposed revisions to its leadership standard that reinforce its emphasis on effective communication and conflict resolution between and among what it calls the "key leadership components" of a hospital: The ED manager and other department managers, ED physicians, and other organized medical staff, and the governing body.
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" . . . Your left toe, looks like you're going to lose a little bit of the distal part," the trauma surgeon told the wounded patient. Then he paused, and rephrased: "The end of it, right at the toenails there; just a tip off the big toe and maybe the second toe in, just the tip."
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The Joint Commission is keenly aware that much still needs to be done to address ED overcrowding; in fact, the agency is considering a redesign of its survey process to more accurately measure ED performance in terms of overcrowding, according to a leading Joint Commission official.
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When patients were evacuated from Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, GA, after an F3 tornado hit on March 1, 2007, a temporary treatment center was set up next to the shelter area inside the town's First Baptist Church.
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After an F3 tornado severely damaged Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, GA, and led to an evacuation of all patients, Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Albany, GA, was designated as one of the accepting hospitals. During the evacuation, Phoebe Putney accepted 45 patients, which included inpatients and emergency patients from Sumter Regional.
