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(Editor's note: In this special issue, we highlight an all-important topic: avoiding litigation. We cover issues such as department-level risk assessments, preventive actions to reduce risk; key areas of risk; a three-step strategy for risk management; changes in your department's culture to reduce risk; the use of patient satisfaction as a best practice; best practices and tools for physician, nurses, and other practitioners; admission of mistakes; and the critical role of patient advocates. We know you'll find a host of important strategies to hone your risk management program.)
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Given the complex tasks of the physician scribes at Tri-City Medical Center in Oceanside, CA, you'd think that the technology they use to interface with the department's electronic medical record (EMR) from Cerner Systems would be anything but user-friendly.
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In this issue: WHO recommendations for antiviral use for H1N1 flu; antibiotic use trends for acute respiratory tract infection; denosumab clears FDA Expert Panel; FDA Actions.
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Levin and colleagues at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem carried out a 4-phase study to clarify the role of radiology technicians and portable X-ray equipment as potential vectors for the spread of infection in their 20-bed ICU, as well as to determine whether an intervention designed to diminish this role would be effective.
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Nassar and colleagues at the University of São Paulo in Brazil investigated the incidence, associations, and outcomes of constipation among all patients admitted to their 14-bed surgical ICU during a 6-month period.
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After identifying the first 2 cases of novel influenza (H1N1) infection in the United States in mid-April 2009, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided interim recommendations to reduce the risk of transmission in health care settings.
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After randomized controlled trials demonstrated the benefit of daily sedation and analgesia vacations in critically ill patients, sedation and analgesia practices in many centers changed, such that patients are now maintained at a lighter depth of sedation.
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The introduction of telemedicine in the ICU dates to the 1980s when Grundy and colleagues reported results of an 18-month trial using interactive television to provide consultation between university-based critical care physicians and a small (7-bed) inner city ICU with no intensivist of its own.
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Hand trauma is common, and children frequently present to the emergency department (ED) with these injuries.