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The floods that ravaged Cedar Rapids, IA, in July caused several hospitals to evacuate their patients, including Mercy Medical Center, a 370-bed regional medical facility.
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While a recent study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine showed that English-speaking adults often have difficulty understanding physicians' instructions, patients who don't understand English present an additional challenge for ED managers.
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In light of a recent study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, some experts recommend that EDs use "read-backs" by asking the patient to repeat back what they have been told to verify whether patients have understood their instructions. However, support is not universal among ED managers.
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A woman who initially had come into the ED at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago with a miscarriage returned three days later. She was extremely upset because she had continued to bleed.
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When patients present in an ED with chest pain, blood can be drawn, and the patient's enzyme levels will indicate whether there has been cardiac tissue damage. At present, however, no similar test is available to detect kidney damage.
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If it is not practical to create a psychiatric ED at your facility, you can create a separate area within your department for psychiatric patients, says Steve Sterner, MD, chief clinical officer and an emergency physician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis and chair of a joint American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)/Minnesota Medical Association task force evaluating psychiatric bed availability and the boarding of psychiatric patients.
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A psychiatric ED can relieve the overcrowding pressure in the main ED, but it doesn't guarantee a solution to the boarding problem, says Steve Sterner, MD, chief clinical officer and an emergency physician at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, and chair of a joint American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP)/Minnesota Medical Association task force evaluating psychiatric bed availability and the boarding of psychiatric patients.
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The recent death of a 49-year-old woman in the psychiatric ED of Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, NY, after more than a 24-hour wait, dramatically illustrates the challenge of EDs trying to serve these patients.
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(Editor's note: This month's issue includes the second part of a two-part series on natural orifice surgery. In this month's issue, we explore patient selection, physician skills, and tools in development. Last month, we gave you an overview of the current status of the surgery.)
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Recovery audit contractors (RACs) have returned $693.6 million to Medicare.
