Emergency Medicine Topics
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Florida Hospital Tests Safety Bundle to Improve Alarm Management
With better communication and training, staff on a surgical ICU improved their responses to emergency alarms and alleviated alert fatigue.
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Congressional Proposal Would Reward Clinicians Who Practice in Rural Areas
The bill would expand medical school loan forgiveness in exchange for working in remote, underserved areas.
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A Review of Depression in the Emergency Department
Depression is a worldwide public health problem. A disproportionate number of patients experiencing depression will be seen in emergency departments, many of them for unrelated medical issues.
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Feds Greenlight Expanded Naloxone Availability
The FDA has approved the nasal spray version of the opioid overdose reversal agent for over-the-counter sales.
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Health Systems Look to Duplicate California Substance Use Disorder Treatment Model
Administrators in several states want to leverage their EDs as a critical point of access to identify and treat substance use disorder.
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Why Navigators Are Essential to CA Bridge
While not all participating EDs in California have a Bridge clinic on their campus, the essence of the model is to make it easy for patients to receive the care they need. To do this, each ED should designate a champion to drive the program and a navigator to facilitate treatment access.
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ET3 Pilot Hailed as Big Step Toward Fully Leveraging EMS
In January 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services launched a five-year pilot program called Emergency Triage, Treat, and Transport (ET3), an approach that enables participating EMS programs to connect some patients with lower-acuity problems to emergency providers via telemedicine at the scene. Most participants are excited about leveraging the approach to accelerate needed care to patients, decompress EDs, and maximize the skills of the EMS workforce.
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Tennessee Develops EMS Response Program for Low-Acuity Medicaid Patients
The program, modeled after ET3, once implemented statewide, is estimated to reduce unnecessary visits to the ED, ease crowding of emergency medical services, and generate more than $8 million annually in Tennessee Medicaid program savings.
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Just One Malpractice Payout Means Far Higher Risk for Future Claims
Of 841,961 physicians with zero paid claims in the 2009-2013 period, only 3.3% were the subject of one or more claims in the next five years (2018-2023). Of 34,512 physicians with one paid claim in the prior period, 12% were the subject of one or more claims in the next five years. Of 4,189 physicians with two paid claims in the prior period, 22.4% were the subject of one or more claims in the next five years. Of 1,214 physicians with three paid claims in the prior period, 37% were the subject of one or more claims in the next five years.
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EDs Can Mitigate Malpractice Perils of High-Risk Medications
Many emergency providers are hesitant to deprescribe medications taken by a patient they just met. Some are more open to the idea in certain cases, such as blood pressure medications associated with side effects or adverse outcomes. But if patients cannot identify the high-risk medications they are taking, or if the link between the medication and the chief complaint is weak, it makes the task harder.