Emergency Department Management & Law
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Novel Unit Accelerates Psychiatric Care, Keeps Patients Flowing
Some departments have designated space where patients with psychiatric emergencies will be taken as soon as they are medically cleared in the ED. Here, they will be evaluated promptly and treated by psychiatric specialists. This model has prevented boarding, opened more beds, made transfers smoother, and produced better outcomes.
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New Solutions to Help Young Patients Who Present with Behavioral Health Crises
Behavioral health mobile teams, comprised of psychiatrists, psychologists, experts in autism and developmental disabilities, nurses, social workers, and case managers, can support medical teams caring for patients in crisis.
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American Academy of Pediatrics Offers Solutions to Ease ED Crowding
Group says “coordinated effort across the healthcare delivery system” needed to ensure continuity of care.
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Legal Landmines for Patients Referred to ED for Psychiatric Evaluation
These risks relate to information-sharing for care coordination and continuity of care.
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‘Medical Clearance’ of Psychiatric Patient Can be Legally Risky
What does "medical clearance" really mean? Does it indicate a patient has no acute issues, or that all the patient’s chronic issues are stable? Or is it both? The answer depends on who you ask.
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Out of Options: When Parents Abandon Pediatric Psychiatric Patients at Hospital
Parents often are faced with an impossible choice. They must decide whether to bring home a child who poses a threat to self and others, or risk a child abandonment charge. The criteria for acute psychiatric hospitalization are so high that children might be discharged only to be rehospitalized within weeks or days — and retraumatized in the process.
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Novel Bedside Procedure Improves Tracheostomy Outcomes
Nurse-driven initiative led to zero incidents of tracheostomy medical device-related pressure injuries for three years.
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Confusion Abounds Over Emergency Codes
In a survey, healthcare employees struggled to recall which emergency corresponded to which code.
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Real-Time Capacity Data Help Cut LWBS Rates, Speed Care
Some adverse outcomes in ED patients could be prevented if actions had happened faster — if someone had been moved to the cardiac catheterization lab faster, secured an inpatient bed sooner, or undergone stroke treatment swiftly. If the patient or families sue for malpractice, plaintiff attorneys will scrutinize those time frames.
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In Med/Mal Cases for Missed Central Nervous Pathology, Dizziness Is Factor
After reviewing dozens of malpractice claims, researchers learned patients who reported dizziness often were discharged home or admitted without anyone diagnosing central nervous system pathology. Patients presented to an ED and were diagnosed with migraine or other conditions. The correct diagnoses only became clear later. The subsequent lawsuits revolved around the first emergency physician missing the diagnosis at the initial visit.