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In some states, only one party to a conversation has to consent for a recording to be legal, while in other states, both parties have to consent unless one of several exceptions to the law is present, such as anticipation that a crime is going to be committed or use by law enforcement, says William Sullivan, DO, JD, FACEP, an emergency physician at University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago and a practicing attorney in Frankfort, IL.
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Admitted ED patients are "definitely in a gray zone," according to William C. Gerard, MD, MMM, FACEP, chairman and professional director of emergency services at Palmetto Health Richland in Columbia, SC. "Fortunately, they are admitted, and that takes your [Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act] risk away. But then you get into the malpractice risks," he says.
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While unauthorized videotapes made by a patient in your ED may seem highly inappropriate, those recordings can often be introduced as evidence in medical malpractice lawsuits, according to William Sullivan, DO, JD, FACEP, an emergency physician at University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago and a practicing attorney in Frankfort, IL.
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Some emergency physicians (EPs) have admitted that they don't take time to read the nursing notes, according to J. Tucker Montgomery, MD, JD, a health care attorney in Knoxville, TN. "Complaints recorded there that go unaddressed, or a particular abnormal vital sign, can come back to bite an EP," he says.
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When an ED patient is being held while waiting for an inpatient bed, Rolf Lowe, JD, an attorney with Rogers Mantese & Associates in Royal Oak, MI, says "there is no bright line cut off for liability. Substandard care in the ED that has an effect on the patient's outcome can result in liability for the EP and the ED staff."
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In this issue: Drug shortages; metformin and cancer prevention; migraine prevention guidelines; and FDA actions.
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This study was conducted to evaluate the impact of a formal audit and feedback program targeted at broad-spectrum antibiotic use in critically ill patients.
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Investigators at the University of Iowa hospital collected culture samples from vinyl privacy curtains at 30 inpatient locations, half of them in the medical and surgical ICUs. Curtains at each location were sampled twice weekly.
