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You are nearing the end of a busy shift in your emergency department (ED) when pre-hospital providers arrive with your next patient. They bring in a 69-year-old male with a chief complaint of headache and chest pain. Emergency medical services (EMS) activated him as a "code STEMI" in the field. He is hypertensive, diaphoretic, and complaining of a headache and chest pain on arrival.
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Given that patients are keenly interested in wait times, an increasing number of EDs across the country are taking advantage of new media to make this information more accessible to the public.
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Analyze the types of patients who typically come through your doors. Most EDs see a significant percentage of patients with musculoskeletal issues, which is an area of expertise for PTs, but check what the patterns are in your department, and determine what hours of the day are optimal for PT coverage.
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Physical therapists (PTs) are carving a niche for themselves in a small but growing number of EDs. They're doing everything from splinting fractures and taking care of wounds to evaluating cases of low back pain to helping patients with musculoskeletal injuries learn how to use assistive devices.
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With volume on the increase and a leave-without-being-seen (LWBS) rate already at 5%, ED administrators at Methodist Hospital of Sacramento in Sacramento, CA, knew they needed to come up with a way to get patients moved through the ED more expeditiously at least until a planned expansion of the ED took place, but in early 2008, that was still more than a year away.
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