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There's no doubt that when the Bon Secours system in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia launched a new "no wait" policy for its EDs, it was hoping to improve its brand and attract more patients.
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Computer systems might be costly, but they can also save you a good deal of money in a short time. For example, the computer system installed at Beaufort (SC) Memorial Hospital and implemented in December 2009 recouped its costs of about $500,000 in just three months.
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The Wisconsin Health Information Exchange (WHIE), which has enabled EDs in the Milwaukee area to electronically access patient data for about three years, has helped the participants save time and make better-informed patient care decisions, according a recent study from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.
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HealthGrades, a Golden, CO-based health care ratings organization that provides the public with ratings on more than 750,000 physicians and 5,000 hospitals, has just released a study it claims "evaluates hospital emergency medicine for the first time."
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Unroe and associates prospectively enrolled 126 consecutive survivors of prolonged mechanical ventilation, along with their surrogates, and followed them for 1 year after discharge from the ICU.
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There are many things that factor into missing a diagnosis of appendicitis, says William Sullivan, DO, JD, FACEP, director of emergency services at St. Mary's Hospital in Streator, IL.
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"This takes the longest to document," he says. "I might not remember every piece of history I asked, or every part of the physical exam that I did, even with computer guidance," he says. "But I spend most of my time on medical reasoning."
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Last month's ED Legal Letter analyzed some recent tort reform court battles. This month, we review cases where physicians are suing state governments to stop them from pilfering the cash in patient malpractice compensation funds, and a few more cases litigating state and federal tort laws.
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Though myocardial infarction is often a key area of focus when it comes to ED misdiagnoses and subsequent lawsuits, appendicitis is another common and serious misdiagnosis in the ED.