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A recent study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine finds that patients with traumatic brain injuries who are transported by medical helicopters have higher chances of survival and better recoveries than ground-transported patients.
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Hurricane Katrina, clearly, was a health care disaster of unimaginable proportions. In the wake of the storm, Gulf Coast hospital emergency generators were rendered inoperable by rising floodwaters.
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Hurricane Katrinas impact was felt far beyond those areas that received the storms direct fury. From Alabama to Texas, EDs that already were overcrowded had to deal with a sudden influx of transfers that, in most cases, doubled their normal censuses.
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The recent fining of Behavioral Hospital of Lutcher (LA) for allegedly failing to appropriately accept transfers of two patients suffering psychiatric emergencies may have offered a bit of consolation to ED managers who are increasingly frustrated by their inability to successfully transfer such patients, but it was also a sober reminder of the severity of the problem.
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In recent weeks, two violent episodes involving inmates inside EDs have left managers wondering if they should take special precautions when they know a prisoner is coming to their department.
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Question: A patient is treated in your ED and discharged. Subsequently, the family is unhappy with the care that the patient received and brings him back to the ED.
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The leading national organizations representing ED physicians and nurses have urged the passage of the Access to Emergency Medical Services Act of 2005 (H.R. 3875), introduced in mid-September by Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX), and asked Congress to pass it quickly.
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Two national health care organizations have come out with contradictory positions on whether mandatory influenza vaccination for health care workers is justified.
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Mary Washington Hospital is trying out a virtual bed system that, when compared to the controls, decreased the average time to triage by 39%, decreased the turnaround time for treat and released patients by 16%, and decreased door to physician times by 82%.
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In a trend that promises to create a serious challenge for EDs for the foreseeable future, talented ED managers are being lured away from their positions to alternative career paths. And, say observers, while compensation may be one factor, it is far from the only factor.
