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If you have a conflict with a colleague, do you document only facts and objective observations or accusatory statements such as, "Despite my intervention, the doctor refused to acknowledge what I am telling him?"
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After the emergency physician's (EP) preliminary reading of a seizure patient's X-ray was negative, the patient was discharged, but the following day, the radiologist's report showed compression of the spine.
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If an emergency physician (EP) continues to treat a patient after a social relationship has developed, he or she faces significant legal risks, according to Jennifer Lawter, RN, JD, vice president of risk management at EPMG in Ann Arbor, MI.
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Developing personal relationships with ED patients involves ethical, as well as possible legal implications, says William Sullivan, DO, JD, FACEP, director of emergency services at St. Margaret's Hospital in Spring Valley, IL, and a Frankfort, IL-based practicing attorney. "Some ethicists have questioned whether it is wise to merge one's social and professional lives," he adds.
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With all the talk about the shortage of primary care physicians, one would think there is an abundance of surgical specialty care providers ready and willing to answer the call.
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Hip fractures are among the most debilitating and expensive diagnoses to treat, but you can significantly improve outcomes and lower costs if you get hip-fracture patients into surgery quickly, explains Anthony Balsamo, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and head of the Geriatric Fracture Care Program (GFCP) at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA.
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While emergency department (ED) volume is always going to be somewhat unpredictable, ED operations at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, LA, used to hum along so optimally that there was no reason to rethink the way things were done.
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As reform helps more Americans gain access to health coverage, experts predict that the nation's EDs will be bulging at the seams.
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Did an ear, nose and throat consultant refuse to come in for a critical-airway patient, a neurosurgeon for an intracranial bleed, or a hand surgeon for a patient with a tendon rupture? "Any of these instances could lead to poor or unsafe patient care and strained future relationships," says Chad Kessler, MD, FACEP, FAAEM, section chief of emergency medicine at Jesse Brown VA Hospital in Chicago.
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Corey M. Slovis, MD, professor and chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, says to remember that requirements of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) apply not only to words, but also to images.