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In this issue: Calcium supplements and MI; birth control pills and VTE; ACE inhibitors and breast cancer risk; spending on pharmaceuticals; and FDA actions.
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Rodríguez and colleagues report on a prospectively enrolled cohort of 235 consecutive patients admitted to two ICUs in Spain who required mechanical ventilation for at least 48 hours and had indications for ventilatory support other than respiratory infection or acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
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Bedside ultrasound is increasingly being performed in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a variety of purposes including guiding volume resuscitation, central line placement, and marking pleural fluid collections for drainage.
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When patients sustain a sudden cardiac arrest, they require immediate life-saving therapies to restart cardiac function and prevent secondary anoxic brain injury.
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To have a successful lawsuit in cases of missed or delayed diagnosis, a plaintiff needs at least two things, according to Michael Blaivas, MD, professor of emergency medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northside Hospital Forsyth in Cumming, GA.
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Errors related to missed or delayed diagnoses are a frequent cause of patient injury and, as such, are an underlying cause of patient-safety-related events, according to new research from the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority,1 which reviewed 100 events related to diagnostic errors between June 2004 and November 2009, 23 of which originated in the ED.
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It is not uncommon for a patient or family member who is unhappy with the services he or she receives in the ED to make threatening statements about filing lawsuits, says Justin S. Greenfelder, JD, a health care attorney with Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs in Canton, OH.
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Simply hearing the words, "I am going to sue you ... can send shock waves up your spine," says Michelle Myers Glower, RN, MSN, LNC a health care consultant based in Grand Rapids, MI.
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Emergency physicians (EPs) are often faced with caring for the impending or actual cardiac arrest patient.
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If you're taking a verbal order from an emergency physician, remember that there is always a potential for miscommunication, warns René Borghese, RN, BAS, unit educator in the ED at Duke University Medical Center. "This is the primary reason we utilize them only when absolutely necessary," she says.