Emergency Department Management & Law
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Report Links ED Boarding to Worse Clinical Outcomes
Some hospitals have found a novel solution in the form of resuscitative care units, which are ICUs based in EDs. Patients who need time-sensitive respiratory, metabolic, neurologic, or hemodynamic critical care can receive it in the ED. This prevents these patients from waiting so long for a bed to finally open in the appropriate specialty ICU.
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Angry Encounters Can Adversely Affect Clinical Decision-Making
A patient screams and spits at the emergency physician and nurse who are trying to determine if a life-threatening emergency exists. Another patient is extremely grateful, cooperative, and respectful. Assuming both patients presented with the exact same clinical situation, would ED providers treat them any differently? The authors of two recent studies examined this interesting question.
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Partly Driven by Defensive Medicine, ED Imaging Orders Rise Dramatically
Investigators analyzed advanced Medicare imaging use and paid malpractice claims, examining claims data for a 5% sample of Medicare beneficiaries from 2004 to 2016 and the National Practitioner Data Bank. For every 1% increase in the number of paid malpractice claims, there was a corresponding 0.20% increase in advanced imaging use.
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Stroke Care Not Significantly Delayed Despite Crowding
Findings provided some assurance EDs can address time-critical illnesses even when crowded, at least when it comes to stroke care. Additional study is needed regarding patients presenting with time-sensitive illnesses, but more vague complaints.
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Advanced Practice Providers See More Complex Patients, Sued More Often
More ED patients are visiting physician assistants or advanced practice nurses. Of 54,722 closed malpractice claims analyzed in a recent study, about 75% of claims naming advanced practice providers also named physicians.
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Poll: Emergency Physicians Hesitate to Seek Mental Health Treatment
Despite the availability of services, frontline workers feeling the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic try to tough it out.
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Advocates Unveil Plan to Accelerate Patient and Workplace Safety Improvements
The plan is built on four foundational areas developers contend all must be addressed to advance safety: leadership and culture, patient and family engagement, workforce safety, and the learning system.
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Medical Groups Pool Resources to Promote Behavioral, Mental Health
As the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, the need for better mental and behavioral healthcare might only intensify.
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Tool Helps Emergency Providers Better Stratify COVID-19 Patients
The tool is particularly effective at illuminating which patients are at both ends of the severity spectrum, which can be helpful to emergency clinicians as they make their disposition decisions. Still, it is up to clinicians to consider the information provided, and then use their clinical judgment.
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Investigators Raise Alarm About Prevalence, Impact of Secondary Traumatic Stress in Emergency Nursing
If left unaddressed, secondary traumatic stress can negatively affect mood, relationships, job satisfaction, and patient care.