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If an ED nurse is contacted by the state board of nursing about a medication error that harmed a patient, his or her first instinct might be to state, "I told them this would happen because we didn't have enough staff!"
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Emergency physicians (EPs) named in lawsuits likely won't be eager to answer detailed questions about their legal problems years down the road, but there are situations in which they'll need to do so.
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Did an emergency physician write an order for a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, but one cannot be obtained because the machine is being serviced? If so, the chart should reflect that the ordering physician was advised of the delay.
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Children with diabetes, especially type 1, remain at risk for developing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). This may seem confounding in a modern society with such advanced medical care, but the fact remains that children who are type 1 diabetics have an incidence of DKA of 8 per 100 patient years.
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A U.S. District Court in Texas allows a physician's retaliation claim against the hospital that allegedly terminated his privileges for reporting violations of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA).
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If an emergency physician (EP) learns he or she is being investigated by the medical board, this should be taken seriously but not personally, advises Michael Blaivas, MD, professor of emergency medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northside Hospital Forsyth in Cumming, GA.
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Whether urban, suburban, or rural in location, every emergency department manages the victims of gunshot wounds, some more frequently than others. It is essential to follow the principles of the management of penetrating trauma and not get distracted by impressive wounds.
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Some electronic medical record (EMR) systems make it difficult for emergency physicians (EPs) to view the nursing notes, says Jonathan D. Lawrence, MD, JD, FACEP, an ED physician at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, CA, and assistant professor of medicine at Harbor/University of California Los Angeles Medical Center, which increases the chance of conflicting information getting into the patient's chart.
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Busy EDs are increasingly relying on temporary staff to cope with nursing shortages, unanticipated spikes in volume, and other personnel challenges, but the practice is coming at a steep price, according to research from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD.
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Suppose a patient is being seen in your ED for an extremity injury resulting from a motorcycle accident, and chooses to leave right after his arm is put in a splint, although the emergency physician (EP) hasn't yet done a full examination.
