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Health care providers have access to plenty of flowcharts and algorithms designed to guide the treatment of patients with particular diagnoses, but many of them arent designed for use in the ED. What good is a flowchart for pneumonia if you dont know whats wrong with the patient yet?
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The Baltimore-based Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) lists these highlights of the final Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) rule:
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Its finally here, and its mostly good news. The government recently released the final rule of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), and the 262 pages offer many long-awaited clarifications that mean you no longer have to worry so much about issues such as when you must deliver emergency care within 250 yards of your hospital.
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Flexibility is the key word when developing a policy on family access, says Stephen Epstein, MD, MPP, spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians and clinical operations director at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Understanding the familys needs is important, but they must be balanced with patient safety.
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Very few hospitals have policies that allow family access during resuscitation and other treatment in the ED, even though research has shown that the public overwhelmingly desires it and a growing number of emergency physicians and nurses support the idea.
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When the lights go out, brace yourself for a surge in patients even if things seem relatively peaceful. That was the lesson learned during the blackout that recently crippled the northeastern United States.
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Updated EMTALA rule eases hospitals risk; Johns Hopkins program loses its accreditation; AMA to provide ethics alerts to MDs
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The privacy regulations enacted as part of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have caused some unforeseen complications for hospitals trying to ensure patient safety and improve communication between providers and patients, say health care professionals and legal experts.
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Would your ethics committee approve a request to perform nontherapeutic surgery that would permanently alter the body of a healthy patient without his or her consent? What if the patient was very young and the parents wanted the surgery for religious or cultural reasons?