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While ED managers have awaited the results of The Joint Commission's Strategic Improvement Initiative (SII) with some trepidation, their fears by and large might have been unfounded based on some early comments.
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) proposed payment policies and payment rate updates for services furnished to beneficiaries during calendar year 2010 in hospital outpatient departments under the outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) should have no major impact on ED managers, according to Barbara K. Tomar, federal affairs director of the American College of Emergency Physicians, Washington, DC.
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Two out of the three pandemics in the 20th century made a first pass and then returned in a more virulent "second wave."
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According to Ken Braxton, JD, a health care attorney at Dallas-based Stewart Stimmel, ED physicians, when notified of a possible lawsuit or claim, should avoid all of the following actions:
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Physicians' personal notes about a patient's care. Incident reports if a patient is harmed. Information given verbally or in writing to the hospital's risk managers.
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The drowned patient represents a unique and difficult challenge. A wide range of physiologic insults may occur, making each management decision critical. This review describes the epidemiology, pathophysiology, critical actions, and prognostic factors the emergency physician must know to provide the best care for the drowned patient.
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With trauma as the leading cause of death in children nationwide, pediatric abdominal trauma is a commonly encountered clinical situation in the emergency department (ED).
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In a recently released advisory opinion, the Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG) has told the facility that requested the opinion, which they didn't disclose, that its plan to compensate physicians for taking call represented "a low risk of fraud and abuse."
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The leaders at San Francisco General Hospital were more than happy to participate in a nationwide Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) program that offers routine rapid HIV testing to all ED patients, but they believed strongly that universal testing was not practical.