Emergency Medicine Topics
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Leverage Rounding, Team-Based Interventions to Address Frontline Burnout
A Texas-based health system looks at employee well-being through a quality and safety lens, directly connecting worker well-being to the organization’s efforts to improve patient safety.
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LWBS Patients Pose Risks for EDs Under EMTALA
Solid documentation is the best weapon against accusations a clinician violated the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act and a patient who left the ED without being seen who files a malpractice lawsuit.
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Malpractice Outcome Hinges on ‘Reasonableness’ of Wait Time
To prevail in malpractice litigation involving a leave without being seen patient, the patient must prove the ED’s failure to treat him or her within the time frame of the visit violated the standard of care. Also, the attorney must prove his or her client suffered harm as a result of that violation.
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Unprecedented Strain on EDs Predates COVID-19 Pandemic
The American College of Emergency Physicians and other groups sent a letter to the White House in which they declared the ED boarding problem a “public health emergency.” The groups asked the Biden administration “to convene a summit of stakeholders from across the healthcare system to identify immediate and long-term solutions to this urgent problem.”
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Medical Incapacity Holds Require Ethical Oversight
Clinicians feel conflicted about their ethical obligations. On one hand, they know it is unsafe for a confused person to be allowed to walk out of the hospital. On the other hand, they are understandably worried about their legal risks.
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Ethical Use of Restraint Hinges on Decision-Making Capacity
The situation becomes ethically complex if the patient’s capacity is unclear, ambiguous, or fluctuating. It is much harder to know if, when, and how to avoid inflicting harm while balancing the patient’s legal and ethical right to make their own decisions.
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Medical Orgs Ask White House to Intervene on Boarding Problem
More than 30 groups say making admitted patients wait for a room or transfer has become a national crisis.
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Not Just an ED Problem: How to Solve the Boarding Problem Caused by Staff Shortages
It takes thought, planning, and some amount of money.
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The Legal Standard of Care if ED Is Understaffed
Frustrated emergency physicians want to be sure the lack of nursing staff is duly noted in the mistaken belief such a note will change the legal standard of care to which they are held. However, that documentation is ammunition for plaintiff lawyers to use against the provider, and leaves the standard of care unchanged.
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EMTALA Concerns if Patient Harm Is Linked to Staffing Shortage
It is important for administrators to understand an individual emergency physician or facility can be held liable under EMTALA, even if no one is hurt.