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Nine years ago, muhlenberg regional medical Center in Plainfield, NJ, opened Progressive Care, an intermediate critical care floor to serve patients with diagnoses and conditions that qualify them for ICU care but who dont require the full, intensive nursing and monitoring that an ICU traditionally provides. The system has worked so well that the facility has added a second such flexible unit.
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Alvan Barach, who pioneered the clinical use of oxygen, was also the first investigator to treat acute asthma by having the patient breathe a mixture of helium and oxygen. In 4 adult asthmatics, Barach demonstrated a reduction in dyspnea after just a few breaths of the helium-oxygen mixture, now known as heliox.
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The objective of this study was to prospectively evaluate the oxygenation effect of inhaled nitric oxide (iNO) delivered during high-frequency oscillatory ventilation (HFOV) in patients with the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS).
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This is the third part in the ED Legal Letter series on abdominal pain. The first two parts detailed common presentations of adult abdominal pain. Part four will discuss pediatric abdominal pain. This part discusses ectopic pregnancy and trauma in pregnancy.
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What should we expect during a Joint Commission patient safety and medications use interview?
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It sounds simple enough: When surveyors look at key accreditation areas, the performance of an emergency department (ED) boils down to whether the ED gives patients quality care in a timely manner. But when patient load and staffing dont mesh, or when concentration on the disease means the individual is ignored, the simple expectation of quality care in a timely manner may be a challenge.
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Emergency departments (EDs) received some welcome news in January when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) adopted the same edition of the Life Safety Code referenced in the Joint Commission standards. The change affects EDs accredited by the Joint Commission that receive Medicare reimbursement from CMS.
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If your emergency department is in the process of preparing for your hospitals triennial accreditation survey this year, or will have one in 2004 or 2005, it will be the last time you have to deal with the stressful ramp-up.
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Whether your facility has a chest pain center or not, this news will be of keen interest to you as an ED manager: There is now an accreditation process for chest pain centers.
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If a triage nurse sees a patient and performs vital signs, then asks the patient to take a seat, is the nurse able to tell the patient how long the expected wait might be?