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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Advisory Panel on ambulatory payment classification (APC) groups has recommended that CMS not finalize the proposal to implement observation packaging for 2008, as CMS had originally proposed.
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A communication strategy using the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation) template is being implemented by EDs to improve handoffs to other hospital departments.
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There are two major liability risks associated with training requirements for procedural sedation: Failing to adhere to your organization's criteria, or having criteria inconsistent with accepted medical practice.
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Increasingly, the anesthesia department is directing guidelines and training requirements for procedural sedation in hospitals, including the ED.
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Remember the first time you saw a patient seizing? Was it in school, at home, or during your initial training in medicine? Scary, yes? Didn't you think something needs to be done right away?
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Several years ago in an ED in Virginia, a triage nurse was taking a patient's history when the family member of another patient approached her.
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Patients and family members in the ED waiting room at Florida Hospital Celebration (FL) Health have more than each other's company to help pass the time while waiting to be seen by a doctor.
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To improve patient service, Park Nicollet Health Services in Minneapolis has begun posting the wait times in its urgent care clinics on its web site (www.parknicollet.com/clinic).
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If you're planning to open a freestanding ED, you won't have any history on which to base your staffing, equipment, and other basics of operations. Nonetheless, say those who have done it, it is essential that you plan ahead as carefully as possible, and you won't necessarily be entirely in the dark.
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As we move ever more rapidly into the age of electronic patient tracking systems, ED managers would be well advised to keep in mind the communication lessons offered by the low-tech whiteboard, say the co-authors of a new paper published online by the Annals of Emergency Medicine.