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If time wasn't a factor and if charting were an enjoyable activity, emergency physicians (EPs) would presumably always produce thorough, accurate documentation a key factor in minimizing legal risks.
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Emergency physicians' (EPs) decisions to admit or discharge patients are motivated, in part, by liability concerns, according to recent research.
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What an emergency physician (EP) documents can unquestionably influence the outcome of a lawsuit, but is the same true for an ED's charting method?
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With some electronic medical record (EMR) documentation systems, plaintiff's attorneys may have a difficult time determining what actually happened during the ED visit.
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Suppose a patient is being seen in your ED for an extremity injury resulting from a motorcycle accident, and chooses to leave right after his arm is put in a splint, although the emergency physician (EP) hasn't yet done a full examination.
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Busy EDs are increasingly relying on temporary staff to cope with nursing shortages, unanticipated spikes in volume, and other personnel challenges, but the practice is coming at a steep price, according to research from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
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Some electronic medical record (EMR) systems make it difficult for emergency physicians (EPs) to view the nursing notes, says Jonathan D. Lawrence, MD, JD, FACEP, an ED physician at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, CA, and assistant professor of medicine at Harbor/University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, which increases the chance of conflicting information getting into the patient's chart.
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Penetrating and blunt cardiac trauma are serious causes of morbidity and mortality. Presentation for blunt cardiac trauma may be subtle and nonspecific, challenging the clinician to make a timely diagnosis.
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Treating pain in the ED is relatively straightforward if the cause is obvious like a broken leg or acute myocardial infarction for which there is clear evidence for the diagnosis. Treating pain is somewhat more problematic when there is no diagnostic test. So it is with headaches, especially the severe migraine types.
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Lyon and colleagues performed a retrospective cohort study of the relationship between insurance status and 30-day mortality, as well as the use of five common ICU procedures, among 138,720 adult patients admitted to ICUs in Pennsylvania in fiscal years 2005 and 2006.